Nana Yaw Barima-Barnie, Western Regional Communication Manager of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has urged residents in the Sekondi-Takoradi and its environs to store more water to be used for at least three days during this period of the dry season.

He further urged the residents to do well to conserve water, and not waste water in the process of washing vehicles, and if possible use borehole water sources to save treated water.

He also urged the public to desist from connecting pipe hoses to the taps to water lawns and wash vehicles which in the process waste a lot of water and also add to their consumption culminating in high bills.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, Nana Barimah-Barnie said water has now become a scarce commodity in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis and for that matter, people should use it judiciously.

He explained that the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis (STMA) and the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipality (EKMA) of the Western Region for the past one month have experienced acute water shortage, hence the caution.

He attributed the water shortage to the low level of water in the Inchaban Dam and the Daboase river which are the main sources of raw water to the treatment plant due to the dry season.

“Usually, during the dry season, the raw water source goes down because it does not rain and there is no freshwater into the river basin at Daboase which is processed at the Dam site at Inchaban, so day-by-day the levels go down, hence water is rationed around this time of the year".

According to him, water rationing has been often in the region because of the growing population making the demand for water so high, while the amount of water they produced sometimes did not meet the demand.

He expressed the hope that the situation would be improved when the expansion of the Sekondi-Takoradi water supply project is completed to provide over 22 million tonnes of water to the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis alone.

When asked how long it would take to see water flowing through the taps, the Communication Manager said, “not until there is water in the river basin” and appealed to residents to remain calm as the company worked tirelessly to provide and share the little water available to salvage the situation.

He also pleaded with the public to pay their water bills in arrears before the announcement of the free water supply by President Akufo-Addo as a measure to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.