Mr. Daniel Ohene Afrifa, the East Akim District Commercial Officer of the Ghana Water Company (GWC), on Friday said it would increase water tariffs again by 12 per cent in September, following the earlier increase in March this year.

He was speaking at a seminar at Bunso, organised by the East Akim District Office of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in collaboration with the GWC to explain the rationale behind the proposed increase in the tariffs.

Mr Afrifa said this year; the company demanded a 200 per cent upward adjustment of water tariffs but was granted only 12 per cent in March, with a second increment scheduled for September.

The Eastern Regional Director of the company, Mr. Ebenezer K. Gabriel, said this year, the GWC could loss a total amount of 1.5 trillion cedis due to the fluctuations in the exchange rate of the cedi to dollar. He said the Eastern Region would make a total deficit of 7.5 billion cedis.

Mr Gabriel said the offices of the company in the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions made profits, which were used to subsidies the budgets of the offices of the company in other regions.

According to him, 30 per cent of portable water produced by the company could not be accounted for in the region and suspected that illegal connections might be the cause and said measures were being put in put in place to reverse the trend.

The Commercial Manager of GWC, Mr. Emmanuel K. Opoku, appealed to the public to report people who engage in illegal water connection, saying, anybody who would assist in the arrest of such saboteurs would be given 200,000 cedis.

The East Akim District Fire Officer, Mr. Seth Amissah, called on Ghanaians to stop destroying the forest because it protected water bodies.

Dr Bennett Lartey, Director of the Plant Genetic and Resources Centre, called on GWC to improve its services.

Barima Agyebi Nti, chief of Bunso, called on the government to extend portable water to the New Bunso township