Special courts to prosecute people for illegal water connections

Pg 14. Mar. 24/08

Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho

THE Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Abubakar Sadique Boniface, says he will as a matter of urgency seek parliamentary approval for the establishment of special courts to prosecute people who connect water illegally to their homes, offices or workplaces.
According to the minister, the activities of such people was a major cause of financial loss to the government. He would, therefore, liaise with the Attorney-General’s Department for the establishment of such courts.
The minister said this on Monday when he accompanied the General Manager of Distribution, Aqua Vitens Rands Limited, Mr Theo Smit, and a disconnection team to stop people who had illegally connected water into their premises.
The operation was carried out in Sukura, Zambrama Line and Kaneshie (all in Accra) where the team disconnected four water sources which had been illegally reconnected after they had been disconnected about a year ago.
At Sukura, an illegal connection was disconnected at a house of a teacher who was absent when the team got there.
According to the disconnection team, the house’s water connection was disconnected about a year and a half ago but they had a tip-off that the landlady had reconnected water to her apartment.
At Zambrama Line, two illegal connections of water were identified, one of which had been connected to a public bathhouse for commercial purposes, The alleged culprit took to his heels when the team got to the scene.
After the disconnection, the minister tasked the chief of the area, Chief Haruna Maiga, to ensure that people within the area were educated on the effect of their actions on the efficient supply of water as well as revenue generation for the government.
At Kaneshie, the team disconnected a house which had been disconnected earlier but was tapping water from a neighbour without his knowledge.
The team earlier visited the Dansoman Police Station where a 65-year-old man, Mr Ofei Ashiley, had been arrested in the morning for stealing two water meters belonging to the St. Margarete Mary Secondary School at Dansoman.
The Head of the Loss Control Unit, Accra West District of Aqua Vitens Rands Ltd., Mr Joseph Nyante, said within the past three months, his outfit had received 57 cases of missing water meters.
An Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) at the Dansoman Police Station, ACP Florence Arthur, who briefed the minister on the current rate of armed robbery in the area, also appealed to people to volunteer information to the police to enable them take action.
The Communications Manager of Aqua Vitens Rands Ltd., Mr Kweku Sakyi-Addo, while briefing the media, attributed the current water shortage in the capital to the activities of some illegal operators.
He said such activities were preventing the company from generating enough revenue that would enable them to work efficiently.
The team also visited Osu Kuku Hill where the company had provided the community with two 9,000-litre capacity polytanks as part of the short-term measures that the government was introducing to help mitigate the current water crisis that was being experienced in Accra.
Other areas where similar polytanks have been provided are the La Bola Junction and La Wireless and according to the officer in charge of Distribution-Accra West, Mr Charles Brobbey, two other communities within the catchment area will benefit from the intervention before soon.