WATER SHORTAGE AFFECTS HOSPITALS IN ACCRA

Aqua Vitens Rand Ltd. (AVRL), has announced repair and maintenance works on pumps and transmission lines at Weija tomorrow.
The scheduled works will cut water supplies to areas from the normal 80 million gallons produced daily to 40 million.
However, the Regional Chief Manager of the East Accra Region, Mr Daniel G. Muomalah and the Regional Engineer, Mr Peter De-Veer, assured customers that water supplies would be restored by the close of day.
The planned works in expected to improve on the water supply system but customers will not see significant changes in water supplies.
That is because, the dry season has affected the supply of water into reservoirs, while other limitations such as electricity cuts, vandalisation of water system infrastructure and in-line pumping or suction pumps have worsened the situation.
That has caused AVRL to institute a rationing programme, however, Mr Muomaalah said the pattern of the programme was dependent on several factors.
He explained that water did not flow in a uni-directional manner, but several pipelines were connected to the main distribution line.
Thus, the supply of water to an area meant gradually opening the valves and building up pressure for all customers to have enough, within the constraints of the general shortage in supplies.
Water demand in Accra is currently 140 million gallons daily, however, and the AVRL supplies 80 million gallons.
The Okponglo reservoir has been able to pump water for an average of only nine hours instead of 24 hours this month because the water level in the reservoir is not sufficient to pump.
Mr Moumaalah said coupled with that some households had the advantage of underground reservoirs that fill up quickly regardless of the pressure of the water flowing while others use in-line pumps or suction machines.
He said a taskforce had been set up to go round on inspection to disconnect the in-line pumps that disrupted supplies to other households.
He urged customers to be vigilant and report to the AVRL any sudden disruptions in the area especially when they experienced no supply and others did.

DAILY GRAPHIC, TUESDAY FEBRUARY 26, 2008 (PUBLISHED AS PART OF ARTICLE WATER SHORTAGE AFFECTS HOSPITALS IN ACCRA).