A major technical fault at the Barekese head-works has resulted in disruption of water supply to Kumasi and its outlying communities by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL). One of the pipes carrying water from the main reservoir to the pumping station had burst, forcing the complete shut down of the plant, which pumps 18 million gallons out of the 21 million gallons of water to Kumasi area daily.

The remaining three million gallons is catered for by the Owabi Head-works.

Mr Samuel Mensah, Ashanti Regional Engineer of the GWCL, who took newsmen round to inspect the fault, on Tuesday afternoon said the company's plant maintenance team was working round the clock to solve the problem.

"We are not leaving the Head-works until we are able to put the plant into operation".

The fault, Mr Mensah said, was detected at 1030 hours last Monday. He said the maintenance team was test running one of their pumps when they heard the noise of the pipe burst.

The Regional Engineer said the burst led to a massive spillage of water at the basement of the pumping station and had to call for support from the Ghana National Fire Service to pump out the water that had filled the basement.

Mr Mensah said as an interim measure, the engineers would block the burst pipe, thereby bypassing the flow of water through the other pipes to enable the taps run.

With this interim measure, the company could pump out about 14.3 million gallons of water daily.