Ben Arthur, the Executive secretary of Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) stated the official position of the coalition of NGOs on the management contract of Aqau Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL) at a press conference held at the Teachers’ hall 27th /04/2011. Theme, the of future urban water supply.
In the press statement, CONIWAS clearly stated that the operations of urban water supply should be reverted back to the Ghana Water Company Ltd (GWCL) and that government should initiate stakeholder consultations among citizens on the long term direction of urban water supply.
The way forward:
CONIWAS presented two options on the way forward that government could adopt to improve urban water supply in Ghana
I) decentralization: Urban water supply should be decentralized to Municipal/Metropolitan level, with each system being autonomous and owned by the municipalities/metropolis.
ii) Bulk water supply: GWCL would still operate all the urban water supply systems, but their operational mandate should be limited to producing water, and supply in bulk to a number of private distributors contracted by communities.
Other related Ghana Water Company Limited:
The statement also reviewed the performance AVRL in terms of water quality, water production, non revenue water reduction and the results of the CONIWAS’ citizen assessment.
AVRL response to the Statement.
AVRL recognizes the need to decentralize the supply and operation of urban water services in Ghana. It is mobilizing to support the urban water sector in the transition as government investigates a long term solution when the contract winds up in May 2011.