Ghana’s oilfields to get water treatment plant

A water treatment plant is to be established at Essiama in the Western Region to cater solely for the oil fields, Alhaji Collins Dauda, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, announced on Thursday.

He was speaking to the media at the Inchaban Water Works during a one-day duty tour which was a follow up to the visit of President John Dramani Mahama to the Daboase Water Intake Point last week.

Alhaji Dauda who was accompanied by Mr. Paul Evans Aidoo, Western Regional Minister, officials of his ministry and the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), also visited the Daboase and Obosomase Intake Points.

He said companies operating in Ghana’s oil fields purchased treated water from Cote d’Ivoire because of shortage of treated water in the country.

Alhaji Dauda said the GWCL was losing substantial revenue in the oil sector as a result of this situation.

Alhaji Dauda said the GWCL was not able to meet the water needs of the Western Region in particular and the country as a whole, and that his Ministry was sourcing for investors to improve water production at the Inchaban Water Works as well as the Daboase and Obosmase Water Intake Points.

He said the greatest challenge facing his Ministry was to find investors to assist the GWCL to deliver satisfactorily.

At the Daboase Intake Point, Alhaji Dauda said GWCL  formerly engaged women to manually dredge the facility to enable water from the River Pra to flow freely to the point.

He said the President was happy about this when he visited the facility and that Zoomlion was now doing the dredging with an excavator.

Alhaji Dauda said the intake currently produced about 2.8 million gallons of water a day, which was less than 50 per cent of its production capacity.

He said the intake point produced 3.8 million gallons of water last Wednesday when Zoomlion began dredging the intake point.

Alhaji Dauda said Zoomlion would continue dredging to raise daily water production to about 5 million gallons as a short term measure, while efforts were being made to find medium and long term solutions.

He said galamseyers operating on water bodies that are drinking sources would be pursued and flushed out on the River Pra and anywhere else in the country.

At the Obosomase Intake Point, Mr. Daniel Muomaalah, Western Regional Chief Manager of the Ghana Urban Water Limited/GWCL, informed Alhaji Dauda that the plant at the intake had broken down since November last year.

He said the plant broke down frequently because of particles in the Pra River caused by the activities of galamsey operators which had resulted in a blockage and must be dredged.

Source: GNA