Bolgatanga, March 20, GNA - Foundation for Grass Roots Initiative in Africa (GrassRootsAfrica), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has expressed concern about the persistent water shortage in the country particularly in the urban centres. GrassRootsAfrica a local NGO working in the area of poverty reduction, strengthening political, economic and social rights of the poor and the marginalised made this known to the Ghana News Agency in an interview.

The Chief Executive Officer of the NGO, Mr. Rudolf Amenga-Etego, said service delivery in the country was generally far below expectation as majority of the people could not get access to portable water, resulting in health- related problems

Mr. Amenga-Etego who is also the Policy and Advocacy Strategies Adviser of the Coalitions of NGOs in the Water Sector said that there was the need for the Government to inject massive capital into the sector to improve upon the infrastructure development of water. He explained that improvement in the water and sanitation sectors would impact positively on the economy as government would spend less on health delivery, which would increase productivity as a result of a healthier population.

Mr. Amenga-Etego indicated that most of pipelines and other accessories had become outmoded which needed to be changed to enhance effective delivery of water.

He said Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) went into a five- year agreement with the Management of Aqua Vitens Randy Limited, on management service contract with the view of expanding and improving infrastructure in the water sector, but claimed that the company had been unable to effectively achieve this objective.

Mr. Amenga-Etego said there was the need for the Management of the GWCL to ensure that consumers of water became accountable in terms of payment of water bills, for the continuous production of water for the people, stressing, "they need to improve upon their revenue collection base".

He observed that a number of people have embarked on illegal connection of water and are consuming it without paying their water bills at the expense of the nation and called on the company to arrest and prosecute those involved to serve as deterrent to others.