The Executive Secretary of PURC, Dr. Ishmael Ackah, on Monday, October 9 and Tuesday October 10, 2023, paid working visits to Ghana Water Limited (GWL) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in the Ashanti Region. The visit forms part of the regulatory assessment to ascertain the operational efficiencies and challenges of the regulated institutions as well as deliberate on the way forward for these institutions.
The Executive Secretary in his opening remarks called for effective collaboration between these entities and the Commission to address customer-related issues.
The Director of Regional Operations and Consumer Services, Alhaji Jabaru Abukari, updated management and staff of the GWL and ECG on their performances with respect to the 2021 rankings on the Ghana Utility Performance Index (GUPI).
Management of GWL enumerated some challenges they face in providing safe, and reliable quality water to consumers. The main challenge in this regard is to do with the effect of small-scale illegal mining activities (Galamsey) on the raw water quality at the abstraction points.
The Regional Chief Manager at GWL highlighted some collaborative programs been undertaken with the Regional Office of the Commission. These include ‘GALAMSTOP’, where GWL joined hands with the Commission to educate community members of mining areas on how their activities were affecting operations of GWL, thereby increasing the cost of production, which would ultimately impact negatively on the tariffs.
Dr. Ackah further underscored the importance of sustainable water management practices in the Ashanti region. The engagement resulted in the identification of potential areas of support from the PURC and central government to collaboratively address the water challenges.
Management of ECG also interacted with the Executive Secretary and his team who assured ECG of the Commission's commitment to assist the region to efficiently and effectively deliver on its mandate in the region. The Executive Secretary implored officials of ECG to organize collaborative programs with the Ashanti Regional Office of the Commission and to help improve on the quality of service to consumers of Electricity in the Ashanti Region.
The Executive Secretary and his team also interacted with the general public on a local radio FM station (Angel FM) in Kumasi at which station, the team took time to educate the listening public on the operations of the Commission, its tariff setting processes, as well as quality of service regulations and complaints resolution processes of the Commission.
