Scheduled maintenance works on a pump and transmission line at the Kpong water pumping station deepened the struggle for water in some parts of the city.
As a result of the water cuts by the Aqua Vitens Rand Ltd (ARVL) yesterday, some areas experienced minimal flow of water in their taps.
Rounds by the Daily Graphic in Labadi, Osu and Mamprobi showed that some residents had to keep wake from 12 a.m. to fill their yellow-coloured jerrycans, popularly referred to as the “Kufuor gallons”.
At Ajumako Street in Osu and surrounding areas, some residents complained that for close to five years, no water had flowed through their taps, while others said they had not had any water for about six months.
At Osu a 20-litre “Kufuor gallon" full of water costs 20 Gp, while the capacity of 10-litre one costs 10Gp.
Some residents who had gathered at a house where water was flowing said they had kept wake since 12 a.m.
Several “Kufuor gallons” and drums were tightly packed by a water hose connected to a tap that was grudgingly giving out water.
Two workers of Sip Water, sachet water producers, Messrs Evans Okine and Evans Donkor, said for several months, they had to go as far as Tema Community 4 for water in a 450-litre Polytank brand of water tank.
The truck they used conveyed three of the tanks on every trip and they made about four trips daily in order for them to keep production going.
Messrs Okine and Donkor said they paid GH¢25 for the 450 litres of water and so they had increased the price of a bag of 30 pieces of sachet water from 60 Gp to 70 Gp.
At the Wireless Road at La, the story was the same, with the “Kufuor gallons” packed closely together around dry taps that some said had remained dry for as long as they could remember.
“We depend on sachet water” was the common response when residents were asked about their alternative sources of water.
Other residents there complained about the erratic nature of the water running through their taps.
“Water just came through my tap this morning, but what I could get was not even up to two gallons,” a resident who did not want to be named said.
At the Degol Park, near the Nativity Presbyterian Church at La, three girls with about ten “Kufuor gallons” tied together, said they had been told of a house nearby where they could get water from a tank.
Gifty Siagbe, a resident, said they filled 30 of the 20-litre “Kufour gallons” daily for their household.
“Whenever the gallons get empty, we go round to find water to fill them,” they said.
“We get it at Gp20 but in the central part of La town we get it at times at 40 Gp”, they added.
Madam Gifty Erskine, a food seller nearby, interjected that “since November last year, we have not had water”.
“In fact the situation has now made ‘nobodies’ of big men who work in big organisations as you see them in the morning carrying the gallons in search of water,” she emphasised.
According to her, the old, the young, the rich and the poor were all now at par as they struggled in search of the vital resource.
The Dade Kotopong area was particularly dry, especially at Oasis, a place where some New Patriotic Party (NPP) executives had placed some Polytanks water tanks with the inscription “Oasis” boldly displayed there.
There too the “Kufour gallons” gave the atmosphere a yellow hue that gave a clear signal that residents were in need of water.
At Mamprobi, around the Bamboi area, residents also said they had not had water for the last four months.
The "Kufuor gallons" were seen in several households, packed by taps, with residents sitting listlessly by and staring at the dry taps.
A peculiar occurrence, residents said, was that all houses on a particular side of the road near Jannot Vocational School had had no water for several months while the other side sometimes had water.
Residents on the side that were deprived of water therefore crossed to houses on the other side to fetch water whenever water flowed.
DAILY GRAPHIC, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2008
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