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It has emerged that 0.7 percent of
the total 12,000 metric tonnes of expired chemicals was used for
treating water at the Weija Treatment Plant.
The revelation was
made by the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alhaji
Collins Dauda, on Wednesday when he made available the outcome of the
committee which investigated the incident.
Some aluminium
sulphate (alum) imported from China by the Ghana Urban Water
Company/Ghana Water Company to purify tap water expired last June,
raising serious public health questions.
The sector Minister
therefore inaugurated a six-member committee last month chaired by
Albert A. Ogyiri, the immediate past President of the Ghana Institution
of Engineers, to investigate the alleged importation of expired alum for
water treatment.
After its investigation, the committee
recommended that four officials of the Ghana Water Company and Ghana
Urban Water Company should be interdicted for their roles in the matter.
They
are: Miss Dora A Bonnah, Procurement Officer GUWL; Mr David Yankson,
Procurement Officer GWCL; Edwin Kwamivi, Logistics Officer; and Evans
Balaara, Chief Manager, Water Quality Assurance GUWL.
The
committee among others observed that although at the time the alum
entered the port of Tema, they were not expired, but by the time they
were cleared, they had expired.
It was noted that even though the
Ghana Standards Authority conducted analytical test and declared the
sampled potent, “In the opinion of the committee, the testing of the
alleged expired alum by the Standards Authority is clearly not within
the mandate of the Authority”.
It further observed: “An
independent chemist who spoke to the committee on the matter indicated
that alum does not expire when stored well. It is also not poisonous or
harmful when used to treat water. He explained further that when the
potency goes down quantity used may be increased without any harm to the
body.”
The committee also recommended that further investigation
is conducted by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) into
circumstances that led to the undue delay in the clearance of the
chemicals as well as the rationale behind the testing of the alleged
expired alum by the Ghana Standards Authority. |
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