Electricity & Water Bills Up?

Stroy By: Felix Dela Klutse

TWO UTILITY service providers, namely the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Ghana Water Company Limited are calling for adjustment in their tariffs.

Ing. Gabriel Gbadago, acting Director of Operations of ECG, told Business Guide at a forum organised by Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) in Accra last week that the adjustment was needed to enable his outfit upgrade and improve the lifespan of distribution facilities.

“We are asking for tariff adjustment at this time because the cost of supply as well as ECG operating expenses has gone up. We also need to expand the distribution facilities to give access to Ghanaians who currently cannot access electricity supply,” Ing. Gbadago explained.

Kweku Botwe, acting Managing Director of Ghana Water Company Limited, on his part, said the adjustment would help his outfit stabilize water delivery in the country.

In spite of the foregoing, Stephen Adu, Executive Secretary of the PURC has said the adjustment would be based on performance.
Mr Adu emphasised: “We demand that standard performance should be met by the utility service providers. Any provider who fails to meet PURC’s target will face penalty.”

He added that one of the penalties for bad service for instance could be slashing down on tariff of a particular utility service provider.

Fredinand Tey, an executive of the Consumers Association of Ghana, in an interview told this paper that he is not in favour of the proposed tariff adjustment.
He stated: “Tariff adjustment should not be an annual ritual. I believe tariff adjustment must lead to improved services but this has not been so over the past.”

The electricity sector has seen phenomenal growth of between eight and 10.4 percent annual increase in demand over the past ten years, but there has not been a corresponding investment in generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure.

The growth in the sector means that ECG would have to double its capacity every 10 years to bring adequate and reliable power supply to its customers. But the reality is that the company has not been able to expand capacity to meet the growing demand. This inability, according to the company, resulted from lack of funds to invest in the expansion of ECG’s infrastructure, tracing it wholly to the inadequacy of the tariff that ECG customers have paid for services rendered.

The existing infrastructure is being stretched to cater for the growing number of customers and this has led to a situation where most of the network is overloaded, thereby resulting in a number of unplanned power outages.
ECG said it needs $991 million over the next five years to effectively improve power supply in the country.

Water supply in Ghana’s cities and regional capitals has been a major problem for years, but has worsened over the past two decades due to poor urban development, population growth and GCWL’s decrepit facilities and unsound management practices.

Attempts to reverse the situation, including a $140 million project to improve the system in 1989, failed to get the taps running. Most homes in the country have water tanks to store water because the taps could only run for a few hours for two or three days a week.

In some parts of Accra, such as Teshie-Nungua, Madina and Adenta, residents pay between GHp50 and GH¢1 per bucket of four gallons from private suppliers.
Recently, the National Coalition against Privatization of Water (NCAP) organized a picket at the entrance of the Aqua Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL) in reaction to the ongoing water shortage in the country.Alhassan Adam, Coordinator of the Southern Sector of NCAP, said though AVRL has been given the mandate to produce and distribute water and also repair and maintain the distribution system, it has not been able to work to expectation.

E-mail: felixklutse@yahoo.com

Mobile: 0243226596