Group calls on Ministry to expedite action on audit report
The Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing have been urged to expedite action on the technical audit report which appraised performance of urban water management under Aqua Vitens Rand Limited.
The Essential Services Platform (ESP), a network of civil society organisations campaigning for universal access to basic social services made the call in a statement issued in Accra on Monday.
This was the outcome of a meeting held on Tuesday February 22.
The Platform said with the continuous decline and deterioration of both quality and supply of water,” what were the measures being taken by the Ministry to address the critical issues raised in the report?” Some of which border on public health.
It commended efforts being made by government to ensure access to water for all with the year-on-year increase in investment into the sector since 2006.
“To attain the MDGs targets for water by 2015 a lot more investment into the sector is expected from government, “it added.
The Platform noted that investments pumped into the sector to expand infrastructure and build the capacity of national water authority would to a large extent ensure that water actually flows through pipelines to homes.
“The experience of AVRL, in the sector has provided additional evidence that without such investments it will be difficult to supply water to citizens, “it said.
The technical audit report revealed that, performance in improvement in water pressure and reduction in non-revenue water as were expected from AVRL had been woeful.
“We implore the Sector Ministry to provide the proper response to challenges being faced by numerous communities in accessing water. The nature of these challenges is such that they cannot be over turned without tempering of the status quo with some sense of urgency.”
“The sense of urgency required to avoid a management contract but which was absent; and for which reason after four years of implementation of the management contract we could only report of a one per cent increase in urban water coverage.”
The Sector Ministry should therefore move to act on the Technical Audit Report which was commissioned by the World Bank to ensure that Ghanaians obtain improved access to quality water and value for money.
“We also express solidarity with the Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU) and workers of Ghana Water Company Limited in their stand for a non-renewal of AVRL’s management contract”, the statement added.
Source: GNA