Security Services in the Upper West Region are owing the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) GH? 550,449, thereby topping the list of defaulters in the Region.

Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) placed second on the list of defaulters with an amount of GH? 91,926 and second cycle institutions are third with GH? 12,772 in arrears.

The Wa Municipal Assembly came fourth with GH? 3,452, while third cycle institutions are owing the company GH? 1,655.

The total debt to GWCL is GH? 769,000 at February.

Mr Joseph Yiah, the Regional Commercial Officer of the GWCL made this known in an interview with the media during an Open Day trip to the Wa Water Supply Project site at Jambusi in the Wa West District.

The trip which was organised by the GWCL in collaboration with the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) and the Water Resources Commission (WRC) formed part of activities marking this year’s World Water Day celebration in the region.

Mr Yiah explained that the indebtedness of the defaulters started piling up when government issued a directive in 2014 to compel them to pay water bills on their own.

Responding to a question on what measures are being put in place to get the defaulters to clear their indebtedness to enhance the company’s operations, Mr Yiah said plans were far advance for GWCL to get releases from the Ministry of Finance.

Mr Edward Kwabena Agyekum, the Wa Project Manager and the Regional Distribution Manager announced that the Wa Water Supply project was now complete and ready for inauguration.

He disclosed that the project had an overall generation capacity of 15,000 cubic meters but was currently generating 500 cubic meters.

Mr Agyekum said benefits to accrue from the project for the beneficiary communities included improved access to potable water supply, improved level of service by increased service coverage to beneficiary towns and boost to business opportunities, mainly tourism, food and small scale industries.

He said the decision to hold the Open Day was to let the students of the Wa Senior Technical School to have a feel of the facility and asked questions to understand the operations of the company and also to whip up their interest in studying water at the tertiary level.