Vea (UE), March 20, GNA - Mr Joseph Kojo Kankam, Upper East Regional Administrator of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), has urged Ghanaians to use water judiciously since Government spends huge sums of monies for the treatment of water for human consumption.

He made the appeal when he led students of second cycle institutions in the Region to tour the Water Treatment Plant at Vea, a suburb of the Bolgatanga Municipality as part of this year's World Water Day, which falls on Saturday March 22, 2008.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after the tour, Mr. Kankam noted that, water was very crucial to human life and therefore, all and sundry must make it a conscious effort to protect and preserve water bodies.

He entreated the students to take it upon themselves as a civic responsibility, to educate their neighbourhood on how to use water wisely to minimize the cost incurred on its treatment by Government. Mr. Kankam mentioned illegal connections, destructions of pipelines by farmers for their gardens and the reluctance on the part of some customers to pay their water bills, as some of the major problems confronting the company in the Region.

"Treatment of water is not meant for doing gardening. It costs a lot for water treatment to be used for gardening," he warned. He advised those involved in illegal connection, to desist from that adding that the full rigours of law would be applied if anyone was found culpable.

Mr Kankam appealed to customers who had not paid their water bills to do so to avoid any disconnections and reconnection charges. He indicated that, the water company has set up a task force that went round rounds to monitor illegal connections and customers who owed the company o the necessary actions to be taken. The students were educated on the processes of water treatment at the plant.

They expressed their delight and promised to help educate the general public on how to use water judiciously.