Water Tariff Hikes By 8.01 Percent

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has permitted an 8.01 per cent upward adjustment in water tariff, starting from next Monday, July 1, 2019.

The depreciation of the Cedi against the US dollar is one of the factors that accounted for the increase, according to the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Mami Dufie Ofori.

She told journalists at a media conference in Accra, yesterday that other factors that gave rise to the hike, were the projected inflation rate and growing demand for electricity and water by the citizenry.

Cost of electricity and chemicals for water treatment were also mentioned as other factors that led to the rise that comes barely three days after electricity tariff was increased by 11.17 on Friday.

"The key objective of the tariff review was to sustain the financial viability of the utility service providers as well as ensuring the delivery of quality service to consumers," she said.

According to Mrs Ofori, the decision was arrived at after extensive technical and financial analysis of proposals from utility companies including Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo).

Others were the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Power Distribution Services (PDS) Ghana Limited, the Northern Distribution Company (NEDCo) and Enclave Power Company Limited (EPC).

Meanwhile, the Ghana Water Company Limited is dissatisfied with the increase as it was expecting more, according to Stanley Martey, Communications Director of the company.

Despite the disappointment and the impact the recent increase in electricity would have on the company's operations, it would cope with what the regulator had given them, he told Joy News, yesterday.

The last major tariff review in water tariff in the country was in September 2018 when the PURC ordered a 10.08 per cent tariff reduction for all GWCL customers.

This was as a result of the company's refusal to allow the Teshie desalination plant to operate contrary to the PURC's tariff decision, according to a statement issued by Mrs Ofori, PURC Executive Secretary.

The desalination plant had been shut down to allow for the renegotiation of the contract which was said to be costing the government GH?6 million monthly.

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