Two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have rejected the proposed 280 per cent water tariff increase by the Ghana Water Limited (GWL), saying it is unfair, unsustainable, and a betrayal of public trust.
The two, Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) and the Africa Water Justice Network (AWJN) in a joint statement issued in Accra copied The Ghanaian Times, expressed deep concern about the proposal, which GWL said has become necessary due to rising costs of treatment from galamsey and other sources of pollution.
The statement jointly signed by ISODEC Executive Director, Samuel Danse and Coordinator of AWJN, Leonard Shang-Quartey, said while acknowledging the dire impact of illegal mining on Ghana’s water bodies, the groups insisted that “tariff increments cannot be the sole remedy to what is, in fact, a systemic, multifaceted crisis.”
They argued that the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), in its oversight role, “must not allow public anxiety about galamsey to be used to overshadow other equally critical issues undermining GWCL’s financial and operational situation.”
According to them, water must be treated as a fundamental human right, and any decision that threatens affordability should be carefully scrutinised.
The statement highlighted several underlying challenges that the NGOs believed must first be addressed.
Key among them is the surge in Non-Revenue Water (NRW), which has risen from 39.1 per cent in 2020 to 49.9 per cent in 2024, far above both Ghana’s 43 per cent benchmark and the 23 per cent average in developing countries.
“Ghana’s figures are two to three times higher than international best practice, representing billions of litres of treated water lost annually through leakages, theft, poor metering and weak data management,” the groups said.
They further pointed to the Teshie desalination plant as “a white elephant” draining GWCL’s resources.
Under the contract, the company pays $1.4 million monthly to the private operator, plus additional electricity bills.
“Water purchased at GH¢ 6.50 per cubic metre is sold to the public at just GH¢ 1.50. This lopsided agreement places an unbearable financial burden on GWCL that tariff hikes cannot sustainably cover,” the statement noted.
The groups rejected GWCL’s justification of tariff hikes by comparing its rates with sachet, bottled, and tanker water.
“Ghanaians resort to these alternatives because GWCL has failed to provide reliable, safe, and accessible tap water. It is untenable to use service failures as grounds for higher tariffs,” the statement argued.
On galamsey, the NGOs said it must be treated as a national security emergency.
“Citizens cannot be made to pay for the state’s failure to curb an existential threat to our rivers and ecosystems,” they stated.
Among their recommendations, the groups called for urgent efficiency improvements to cut NRW, a renegotiation of the desalination contract, creation of a Water Solidarity Fund financed by a 2.5 per cent levy on oil and mining revenues, and stronger procurement oversight.
They stressed that the PURC regulated not on behalf of customers in a narrow commercial sense, but “on behalf of people and rights holders whose human right to water must be protected above all commercial considerations.”
“The crisis facing GWCL and urban water management cannot be reduced to a tariff issue,” they organisations stated.
“To approve a 280 per cent tariff increase without addressing structural inefficiencies, exploitative contracts and the national security threat of galamsey would be grossly unjust,” they said.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
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