The Director General of Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Mr. Clifford Abdallah Braimah, has said that steps were being taken to make illegal water connection a national security threat.
Mr. Braimah says the step was being taking due to financial losses that illegal connection activities posed to the company.
Aside financial losses, the GWCL boss also said some customers were also denied access to water whenever an illegal connection took place, hence, the decision to make it a national security threat.
“Management is thinking through our Board of Directors that National Security should even consider illegal connection as a national security threat.
“Illegal connection must be considered as a national security threat, so that people will be dealt with.”
Mr. Braimah was speaking at a media briefing and exhibition held at the Head Office of the GWCL in Accra yesterday.
The programme, dubbed “Accounting to the Customers”, was to throw light on the activities of the GWCL over the past five years, including successes and challenges, as well as plans put in place to serve customer better.
Addressing the audience, which included regional directors of GWCL, officers from the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission, Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, Mr. Braimah gave more reasons why illegal connection should be considered a national security threat.
According to the DG, 33% of the water lost under the non-revenue water was a result of illegal connection, and, hence, the need to put stringent measures in place to curb it.
He also noted that there was a specified adhesive that was used for connecting pipes, because some adhesives contain chemicals which were harmful to human health.
He indicated that, when people connect water illegally, one cannot determine whether or not the approved adhesive was used.
“Because all of us use water, and there are adhesives we use to connect the pipes must be certified by Food and Drugs Authority as something that is friendly to human. But if you do that illegally, how can we tell the kind of adhesive that you used?” he said to justify why illegal connection was a serious issue. Continuing:
“That is where our customers’ support to us is very critical. When someone does an illegal connection, the person is threatening the lives of Ghanaians, and we must guard against that and report the person to us as quickly as possible, because we are going to use the water to cook, bath, and so many things, and if something is injected in the line, it’s going to create health problems.”
Mr. Braimah again said that aside the health issues, illegal connection denied people access to water and causes them to buy water at exorbitant prices, hence, the need to report people who fall foul of the law.
The DG noted yesterday that the GWCL aimed to serve its customers better, and that was why it was going the extra mile to cover all the holes that stand in the way of their aim.
He, therefore, indicated that aside tackling illegal connection, the company was also embarking on a number of projects, including a massive digitisation agenda to make life easy for its customers.
He spoke about how the electronic billing and payment system, which was introduced in 2015, had reduced armchair reading and billing errors, and made customer payments easier and accessible.
He said plans were underway to digitise new service connection processes to ensure that easy access to services would still be on course. He also said the company had introduced a Customer App to enhance customer interactions.
Other activities the DG said the company had undertaken to ensure the welfare of its customers was the construction and extension of pipelines and even the development and welfare of the staff they worked with.
