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Owners of mechanised boreholes and wells have been advised to have the quality of the water tested to ensure that they are using potable water and not endangering their health.
The call has become necessary because of concerns raised over the safety of groundwater sources due to the increase in its use for both domestic and commercial purposes.
The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Dr Freda Akosua Prempeh, who gave the advice, said testing the water was necessary given the grave health risk associated with the use of untreated groundwater.
Addressing a press conference in Accra last Monday, the minister said testing the groundwater was a better safety precaution which would help avert any risk the use of untreated groundwater posed.
The press conference was to announce an intended exercise by the Water Resources Commission (WRC) to test groundwater water quality in homes and communities nationwide.
The exercise, to be piloted in the Adentan and Ga West Municipalities in the Greater Accra Region, was as a result of the significant uptick in the reliance on these groundwater sources.
Dr Prempeh said the exercise would allow the commission to assess and monitor groundwater quality, identify and mitigate threats to groundwater (if any) and educate and engage local communities in sustainable groundwater practices.
She added that it would also allow them to educate citizens on water safety from abstraction to storage, support policymakers with data-driven insights, facilitate collaboration among governmental bodies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local communities and enhance infrastructure for water safety.
“Due to the constantly expanding population, the region being an urban one is experiencing a significant rise in water consumption.
Numerous commercial and industrial operations are located in the municipalities, which contribute to the increased demand for water,” she said.
The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources also urged the public not to panic because the exercise was only proactive and within the commission’s mandate of ensuring that people had access to quality water.
She equally urged boreholes and well owners to be welcoming to the officials and also encouraged politicians, public office holders, NGOs, religious leaders and any institution that had created mechanised boreholes for communities across the country to contact the ministry or the commission to have them tested.
Dr Prempeh also advised people thinking of having boreholes and wells to contract registered companies because those companies were required by law to test samples of the water before allowing consumption.
That, she said, would enable the ministry and the commission to have accurate information with regard to water quality and act proactively to protect them if need be.
Dr Prempeh said the exercise would be done free of charge and owners of boreholes and wells need not pay for their water samples to be collected.
She said the commission would also collaborate with the various district assemblies to employ a Data Management System, which would use a centralised system to store and manage the collected data.
