No Decision Yet on AVRL

EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

The government of Ghana says it has not taken any decision yet regarding management of the country’s water systems by Aqua Vitens Rand Ltd (AVRL), whose contract expires in June 2011.

AVRL was given the contract to manage Ghana’s 81 water systems in 2006, after signing an agreement with the government of Ghana at the end of 2005.

However, the Dutch company has recently come under a barrage of attacks from sections of the Ghanaian consuming public, who have blamed it for poor performance and service delivery and have thus asked government to abrogate the contract.

But responding to that thorny issue of AVRL’s competence or otherwise in a statement delivered Thursday in Accra at a forum dubbed Meet-the-Press, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, declared that the government had not made any decision yet on the issue.

Instead, he said, the government, together with its development partners in the water sector were currently studying the performance of the company, which is working for and on behalf of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL).

Speaking to the AVRL issue at the press briefing, he said “The contract between Ghana Water Company Limited and AVRL is due to expire in June 2011. Government, together with its development partners is seriously studying the performance of Aqua Vitens Rand Limited and other options for improving the overall management of the urban water sector.”

Hon. Bagbin continued that “The options on the study would assist all of us in defining the way forward in managing and operating specific urban systems for efficiency gains. So clearly, no decision, no bias, no prejudice – scientific and that will point the way to all of us.”

Later during question time, the Water Resources Minister assured and stressed that the Ministry in consultation with all major sector players will advise government on what to do, only after a thorough study of the performance of AVRL and not by using its own indicators.

He however lamented in respect to water demand management that, in the face of the numerous challenges confronting access to potable water, and the fact that Ghana’s water resources are finite, and indeed may face dwindling resources by 2050, many still splash their lawns and gardens and wash their cars with expensively treated water that other Ghanaians queue and fight to get.

In view of this, he said government is “considering legislation that will encourage a 360º recycling and reuse of water, including waste water, especially by our food and beverage industries, which use heavy amounts of water in their operations.”

The Minister added that when that is done, businesses would have to choose between two options – either pay tax on their waste water using the polluter pays principle, or purify it for reuse.

Hon. Bagbin dared, “ As usual, we can be fatalistic and say that this innovation will never work in Ghana, but ladies and gentlemen, let me assure you, that this practice is reaping enormous benefits in water savings elsewhere in the world,” saying he strongly believed the same can be done in Ghana.

With that, he drunk some water from a portable recycling system placed in the Ministry of Information hall where the briefing took place, after he had introduced it to the audience and told them that any polluted water, even from a gutter, can easily be filtered and made potable by the system, which had be thoroughly tested.