The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has restored water supply to the eastern part of Accra and Tema after completing repair works on the transmission pipeline from the Kpong Treatment Plant.
The company cut water supply to about two million people, nearly half of the population of the Greater Accra Region, to carry out the repairs.
The rehabilitation work is the third phase of a project which started in April 2021 in order for the company to change the weaker sections of the main transmission pipeline from Kpong to Tema.
The first phase was done in April, 2021 at Gbetsile, near Ashaiman, where the company changed about 200 metres of the pipeline.
The second phase also took place two months ago with another 200 metres of the pipeline along Nsaen area on the Tema-Kpong road replaced.
The five-day exercise, funded from internally generated revenue of the GWCL and undertaken by engineers of the company, started last Sunday, and was expected to be completed today.
However, the engineers finished the work ahead of schedule.
Visitation
During a visit to the project site to observe the extent of work done last Tuesday, the Chief Manager in Charge of Public Relations and Communication of the company, Stanley Martey, told the Daily Graphic that, “all things being equal and barring any technical hitches, we should be able to finish by midnight, and immediately we will start treatment of water and pumping into the metropolis”.
Mr Martey added that “a lot of work has been done.
We started on Sunday in the evening, and we have been working throughout the night till now.
Our staff have been running shift, so all things being equal, we should be able to finish by midnight”.
“So by Wednesday in the morning, some areas in Tema and the Ashaiman community should start having water, and by close of day, water should get to most areas of the eastern part of Accra, and latest by Thursday, everything should normalise,” he said.
Mr Martey said the project cost about GH¢4 million, while the one done at Gbetsile in April 2021 cost about GH₵3 million.
He explained that the company had identified the weaker sections of the about 80-kilometre and 42-inch pipeline spanning the Kpong Treatment Plant to Tema which resulted in high volumes of water and pressure in the pipeline for refurbishment.
He said although the pipeline was more than 50 years old and it had gone past its expiration period, the GWCL could not change the stretch at a go due to lack of funding.
“In April 2021, we announced to the public that the main transmission pipeline from the Kpong Treatment Plant to our booster station at Tema was weak.
It is currently over 50 years old and it is gone past its expiration period but due to prudent maintenance and standard operating procedures, we have been able to manage the pipeline till now,” he said
Source: myghanadaily
