Water treatment plant in danger as galamsey activity covers pump with sand.

Mr. Daniel Muomaalah, General Manager of Ghana Urban Water Limited, a subsidiary of the Ghana Water Company Limited has called on stakeholders in the Tarkwa Nsuaem municipality of the Western Region and the country as a whole to come out with alternative jobs for galamsey operators who have made it a habit to mine in the Bonsa River basin.

Speaking at a press briefing at Bonsa on Monday, the General Manager expressed worry that, the point where the water treatment plant’s pump will take the water was currently covered with sand due to the uncontrolled activities of the illegal miners.

Mr. Muomaalah said the plant  was originally designed to produce one million gallons of water a day, but the activities of  galamsey operators in the river had made it impossible for the company to produce up to that target.

Currently, the plant produces between 750, 000 to 800,000 gallons of water a day, he said,  adding that this was inadequate to serve the entire municipality.

Mr. Muomaalah  cited power supply, out-dated pumps and equipment, water source and distribution network limitations as some of the challenges that prevented the company from supplying water to Tarkwa regularly.

He said to address the water crisis the Company had planned to drill three mechanized boreholes in Tarkwa to serve as supplement to the current treatment plant in the short term.

In the long term, Mr. Muomaalah said, the company was in consultation with an American company for a packaged plant that could treat four million gallons of water a day to replace the present old system.

The general manager appealed to all to help protect the Bonsa River and other water bodies across the country from pollution and extinction.

Source: GNA