AQUA -VITENS RANDS PERFORMS POORLY IN GHANA-

Aqua-Vitens Rands Limited(AVRL) a water management company in Ghana, has been ask to lay down their tools and hand over to the Ghana Water Company Limited due to their poor performance by the National coalition against water privatization a non-government organization .The NGO was represented by the southern Sector Coordinator Alhassan Adam who said a recent technical audit by Fichtner Consultants a German based consulting firm also vindicated their position and made more damming revelation that there was a good ground for the abrogation of the the contract ."According to the report by Fichtner consult, management is the solution to the challenges facing urban water delivery in Ghana and that AVRL has woefully underperformed under its contract".He added that the quality of water in the country had not improve and the worst was the chemical regents for the treating water against potential health threatening substances such as;arsenic,cyanide,lead,copper and zinc were not available.This has lead to all forms of water pollutions in various parts of the country mostly in mining areas such as Brong-Ahafo and Western region.
Mr.Adams said equipments used in their daily activities were not in good position to record and give accurate data.The report also stated that the right procedure of establishing baseline information was not carried out to determine the actual strength and weakness of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) before entering into management contract.Therefore it has resulted in lack of baseline information where AVRL's condition of poor performance was hidden.Expressing the NGO's worry, he said they were not happy about the attempt by Fitchner to lower standards for AVRL ,amongst its recommendation,where AVRL was required to prepare and implement "Operation and maintenance management plans and standard procedures for ten regions major supply schemes".This is not acceptable since AVRL mandates cover eighty urban water systems.
To conclude he stressed that his outfit demand government to abrogate AVRL contract immediately and hand it over back to GWCL.Ghana standards Board and Public Utility Regulatory Commission should also see to it that chemical reagents requirement for the treatment of water were part of the water quality standards.