Adjiriganor Residents Angry Over Water Shortage

Residents around the Islamic University at Adjiriganor, East Legon in Accra are experiencing infrequent supply of water to their homes. This has come about as a result of illegal pipeline connections that some squatters in the area have undertaken in aid of their water selling business. The illegal activities of the water sellers have affected the whole community to the extent that most of them do not get water from their taps even though the water systems remain open. Because of the illegal lines which are connected to the main pipeline, the pressure in the tubes supposed to drive water into various home has reduced. The residents claimed several reports they had made to the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), requesting it to address the problem have not yielded any result. Mr Rocky Amudzi and Mr Kofi Dadzie - both spoke on behalf of the residents - said the problem began about two years ago when some squatters invaded the area and put up kiosks and wooden structures to live in. According to them, before the squatters intruded on the area they did not have problems with water supply. They said it was only later when they began experiencing challenges with water supply that they noticed a sudden rush of water-carrying trucks descending on the area to purchase water from the squatters. They said investigations revealed that the illegitimate settlers had illegally tapped into the main pipeline and were selling water without paying any money to GWCL. According to the spokespersons, the attention of GWCL in the Adentan Municipality was drawn to the matter after which some officials from the company came around to disconnect the illegally connected pipelines. However, they said, not very long after, the squatters resumed their operation and have once again thrown the community into a state of want. The residents, both Mr Amudzi and Mr Dadzie said, have therefore requested to GWCL to do something about the problem so that they could enjoy uninterrupted water supply. Meanwhile, a water vendor in the community claimed that the water he sold was from a borehole and not from GWCL as some people believed.