Home NEWS Osino Water Treatment Plant shut down following pollution of Birim River

Osino Water Treatment Plant shut down following pollution of Birim River

The Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has shut down its Osino Water Treatment Plant in the Eastern Region as a result of the high pollution of River Birim by illegal miners.

According to the GWCL, the water is highly polluted, unwholesome and beyond treatment.

It said any attempt to treat the water would be too expensive.

The plant produces about 30,000 gallons of potable water daily for people in and around Osino.

Currently, residents of Osino rely on private boreholes, rivers and streams for water since an attempt by the GWCL to drill and mechanise two boreholes was not successful as the yields were not good.

According to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Eastern Regional office of the GWCL, Mr Kwadwo Daase, the Osino and Bunso water treatment plants were both shut down in late January 2018.

He said the Bunso treatment plant, which derived its raw water upstream the Birim, had been on and off.

However, the Osino plant had remained shut since the management of the company detected that the water, which was derived from downstream of the Birim, had been consistently polluted.

Mr Daase indicated that the Osino plant was going to remain shut until there is a drastic improvement in the quality of the raw water.

Rationale

Apart from spending so much money to treat polluted water,  Mr Daase said the company also risked putting its equipment, especially the pumps, in danger of picking silt which could permanently damage the facility.

He explained that the plant was not built to measure water turbidity which ideally should be 200 nephelometric turbidity units (NTU), but laboratory tests carried out showed it was highly polluted.

Water treatment plants

The Eastern Region has four water treatment plants, of which Osino is one.

Kyebi has a new plant which was inaugurated in March 2014 and has remained in operation.  However, it was shut down last year for about a month, also due to the negative effects of galamsey. The Kyebi plant produces 44,000 gallons of water daily.

Similarly, the Anyinam Treatment Plant, which produces 30,000 gallons of water daily, has been shut down for three years now due to the galamsey menace.

Mr Daase told the Daily Graphic that the company had provided two mechanised boreholes for the people but they were inadequate.

The Bunso Treatment Plant produces 60,000 gallons of water daily.  Its operations have been on and off, depending on the quality of raw water.

Operation Vanguard

Mr Daase commended the government for introducing Operation Vanguard, which had led to improvement in the quality of water of the streams in the region.

“The Osino plant was shut down for two years before the introduction of Operation Vanguard. About two months after the ban, we were able to resume operations at Osino, which is a testimony that the ban has helped. However, we believe that the illegal miners may be working in the night which may have caused the water levels to deteriorate,” he said.

He urged the government and other stakeholders to continue the fight against illegal mining so the company could provide potable water for all consumers.

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