Find solution to Tamale water crisis; avoid excuses!!

 The Tamale Metropolis is reported to have been hit by water shortage, a crisis that has hit six senior high schools (SHSs) in the metropo­lis the hardest.

The situation is said to have persisted for a number of years.

Even though the Northern Regional Production Manager of the Ghana Water Limited (GWL), Mr Albert Nyeteng, has explained that the challenge is as a result of population growth outstripping supply, The Ghanaian Times cannot accept this as a good enough explana­tion.

This is clearly a flimsy excuse because certainly, settlements would naturally grow so this must always be envisaged and planned for.

Since when did the GWL find out that water demand in Tamale currently stands at 90,000m³ a day, and yet the company continues to pro­duce at the antiquated rate of only between 35,000m³ and 38,000m³, which is less than half of the demand?

Clearly, there are other fac­tors fuelling the situation rather than just the population growth and these are what should be made known for the govern­ment and other stakeholders to look at.

Is it a matter of inadequate machinery, or the refusal of the government to provide assistance?

Some of us even think the situation where public organi­sations that run as commercial entities ask for assistance from the government should be a thing of the past; they should be able to fend for themselves with the government coming in to help only when the prob­lem is beyond their inability to resolve it and as a result would disrupt the socio-cultural and economic lives of the people.

Even in such situations, the particularly public entity must be made to bear part of the financial assistance from the government, which it must refund later.

It is sad that some of these organisations pay their manage­ment and staff hefty remuner­ations without thinking of the growth of the organisations.

This smacks of self-cen­tredness, neglect, ineptitude and incompetence, probably because of the pampering they enjoy from the government and the inability of the public to check them.

No wonder the GWL is giv­ing the public the irritating in­formation that the Tamale Wa­ter System, which was built in 1972, had since seen only one major expansion in 2008 and currently lacked the capacity to meet the growing demands of the sprawling metropolis.

Public organisations are cre­ated to solve public problems, which they must envisage and stem in some cases or resolve them when they occur.

Currently, the GWL has shown enough negligence, ineptitude and incompetence in resolving the Tamale water crisis if it really knows the problem has persisted for years.

For now, The Ghanaian Times joins appeals to not only find ways to supply the SHSs in the Tamale metropolis with water but also the whole metropolis, while the GWL acts urgently to solve the real problems and stop using the growth of popu­lation in the Tamale metropolis as an excuse.

It is said that water is life and this is truly the case because in the absence of smooth supply of water all activities – econom­ic, social, cultural, educational and what have – come to a standstill as it is the situation in the Tamale metropolis that SHSs cannot run smoothly because of lack of water.