The Ghana Water Limited (GWL) has sued twenty (20) people at the Tamale District Court in the northern region for nonpayment of water bills. The lawsuit has become necessary following the unwillingness of some water consumers to pay their bills in the region.
THE CUSTODIAN can exclusively report that the Ghana Water Limited is owed about fifty-two million, one hundred and eighteen thousand, five hundred and fifty (52,118,550.28) Ghana cedis in the northern region.
The Northern Region Public Relations Manager of the GWL, Mr. Nii Abbey, who confirmed the prosecution of the defaulting clients in an exclusive interview last Monday, August 14, stated this figure was recorded at the end of July 2023.
He noted the PURC regulation stipulates the credit period for which a consumer can owe a utility service provider is about 90 days.
He however observed that an average analysis of the accumulated arrears shows the customers are owing for about 11 months.
“What it means basically is that, we have been able to give them the services or our product and for over 11 months, they have not paid for it” he asserted.
According to Nii Abbey, the huge indebtedness is adversely affecting the operations of the Ghana Water Limited to the extend the organization is unable to pay their suppliers among other obligations.
“Definitely it is impacting on our operations and that is how comes we usually go out to do the revenue mobilization. But let me also say to you that, just this morning, our lawyer has been able to finalize documentations where we’re sending the first 20 number of customers to court; we have observed that maybe the court action will help and so we’re starting with the first 20 customers and once we’re done with the court process, the second badge will follow.”
THE CUSTODIAN has learnt the debt level was 40 million cedis at the beginning of 2023 and has risen to over 52 million. Averagely an amount of 1.5 million cedis is added every month to the debt stock of the Ghana Water Limited.
In order to curb the rising debt level, Nii Abbey in his remarks stated the GWL instituted some measures and targeted to reduce the debt level by 5 percent before the close of June 2023 but lamented that the figure continuous to increase.
Meanwhile, Mr. Abbey while addressing stakeholders at the maiden edition of a Regulatory School initiated by the Northern Regional Office of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) further outlined some operations challenges affecting the Ghana Water Limited.
He pointed out illegal connections and meter by-passes, interference from politicians, chiefs and opinion leaders, destruction of pipelines by contractors, frequent power outages, aged and weak pipelines leading to frequent leakages and bursts as some of the major bottlenecks impeding their work in the northern region.
The Public Relations Manager seized the opportunity to call for the support of all stakeholders to improve the delivery of quality to the public.
