Civil society groups urge PURC to reject GWCL’s proposed 280% water tariff hike

Accra, Ghana – The Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) and the Africa Water Justice Network have urged the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to reject the Ghana Water Company Limited’s (GWCL) proposed 280 per cent tariff increment, describing it as unjust and unsustainable.

In a joint statement, the groups called for a holistic approach to resolving the structural and operational challenges facing GWCL instead of burdening consumers with higher costs. They argued that the crisis in water service delivery stemmed from both internal inefficiencies and external pressures.

The organisations recommended that the government and PURC assist GWCL to reduce its Non-Revenue Water (NRW) rates to international benchmarks through urgent investments in pipeline rehabilitation, metering, data systems, and anti-theft enforcement.

They also urged the government to renegotiate or terminate the “exploitative Teshie desalination contract”, which they said was draining the utility’s finances. In addition, they proposed a 2.5 per cent special levy on oil and mining revenues to support the water sector, insisting that extractive industries must share responsibility for safeguarding the nation’s water resources.

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The statement further called for reforms in GWCL’s procurement processes to guarantee transparency, open competitive bidding, and parliamentary oversight for high-value contracts. Such measures, they argued, would reduce political interference and protect public resources.

“The PURC’s regulation is not on behalf of customers in a commercial sense, but on behalf of people whose human right to water must be protected above all commercial considerations,” the statement said.

The groups warned that approving the 280 per cent tariff hike without addressing structural inefficiencies, exploitative contracts, and the national security threat posed by illegal mining (galamsey) would be a betrayal of public trust.

While acknowledging the damage caused by galamsey to Ghana’s water bodies, the civil society organisations stressed that tariff increments alone could not resolve what they described as a “systemic and multifaceted crisis.”