Stop Wastage In Water, Electricity Supply - TUC

The Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) has asked utility service providers to ensure efficiency in the distribution of water and electricity to avoid wastage and losses that are passed on to consumers. With the implementation of the Automatic Adjustment Formula (AAF), which allows quarterly tariff adjustment, the TUC stressed that service providers needed to avoid losses and wastage, to spare consumers the burden of having to pay for suchcost. The Secretary General of the TUC, Mr Kofi Asamoah, made the call at a meeting between the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) and stakeholders, in Accra, to discuss the AAF and quality of service. Mr Asamoah also called on the government to ensure the prudent management of the economy so that the indicators for the AAF would be correct. In his presentation, the Executive Secretary of PURC, Mr Samuel Sarpong, explained that the indicators for the AAF, included generation mix, exchange rates, inflation, demand forecast, fuel price, power purchase cost, materials and chemicals. Therefore, he explained, the adjustments in tariffs were totally dependent on the state of the various indicators. Complaints system To ensure quality service, Mr Sarpong said the PURC would enhance its complaints system, to give consumers wider platforms to lodge their complaints for redress. The new channels would include a call centre with toll-free lines, use of social media, and other web applications. Utility providers Meanwhile, the service providers have rolled out measures to ensure efficiency and improvement in their services this year. For his part, the Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana, Mr William Hutton Mensah, cited the installation of automatic meter reading systems as one of the measures. The acting Managing Director of Ghana Water Company, Mr Kweku Godwin Dovlo, said the company would introduce a pre-paid metering programme on pilot basis and apply the technology in its activities this year.