Residents across the Amasaman District of the Ga West Municipal Assembly are enduring a catastrophic water crisis, with Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) supplies failing for periods exceeding eight months, and in some cases, over a year.
Communities including Amasaman, Obeyeyie, Medie, Manhean, Peace Village, and Afuaman are grappling with this dire shortage. While some areas receive water only once every four weeks, neighbourhoods like Peace Village, tiGO Pole, Manhean, and Afuaman have seen their taps run completely dry for approximately more than five months.
Investigations by Ghanaian RADAR has revealed that the crisis originates 27 kilometres away at the Nsawam reservoir and is the direct result of a severely skewed and manipulated allocation system.
The Manipulated Valve and a Deepening Chokehold
The crisis is institutionalised by a problematic agreement between GWCL head office and Nsawam management, which initially allocated water on a turn system: 27 turns towards Nsawam (favouring major factories) and only 23 turns towards Amasaman. However, this unfair balance has been deliberately worsened.
Sources indicate that the critical boundary valve at Adjen-Kotoku—which requires 50 turns to operate—has been progressively tightened against Amasaman. The allocation was first adjusted from 27/23 to 30/20. Under a new management, it has been cruelly set at 40/10, effectively starving the district. The official explanation given is that Amasaman is now to be supplied from the Weija Treatment Plant, for which lines have been laid but the project remains incomplete due to contractual issues and breaks.
However, this reporter found out that this justification contains a damning contradiction. The GWCL head office had a mandate to bring in water from Weija last year (2025) but failed to do so. Despite this failure, the same head office instructed Nsawam to reduce the agreed turns of the Medie control valve down to a mere 10.
The betrayal deepens further, Ghanaian RADAR established. Even this agreed-upon 10-turn allocation is not being honoured. For months, Nsawam distribution has taken "advantage" to reduce the flow further down to just 4 turns, causing no substantive flow into Amasaman. This has made water critically scarce in the district for almost seven months now.
Systemic Diversion and Sabotage for Profit
Probing further, Ghanaian RADAR uncovered that this systemic diversion is actively facilitated by unscrupulous GWCL workers at Nsawam. For personal gain, they manipulate the valve to further starve residential areas and channel over 80% of daily water production to major factories in Nsawam, backed by head office and Eastern Region managers.
Multiple large customers on the dwindling line to Amasaman consume water before it reaches district communities, often leaving nothing for residential taps. Despite the best efforts of local GWCL staff members in Amasaman, their appeals to management have been ignored.
Corporate Solutions Blocked, Residents Demand Action
Ghanaian RADAR can also reveal that Twellium Industrial Company Limited in the area sought to alleviate the pressure with two major proposals, both allegedly rejected by GWCL's top management. First, Twellium requested permission to lay its own raw water pipeline from the Nsawam dam to use its on-site treatment plant, which would free up treated water for residents. In a second proposal, the company offered to renovate the dormant 1.2-million-gallons-per-day treatment plant at Nsawam to boost overall supply. Sources claim GWCL management refused both solutions.
In response, the residents issued urgent demands. Their core call is immediate: halt all water supply to the factories and direct the full 50-turn flow from the Nsawam reservoir towards Amasaman, supported by booster pumps to overcome the 27km distance. They also demand the "bad order" on the valve at Kotoku Junction be quashed to ensure it is fully opened.
"The cries of citizens in Amasaman over water is too much," stated resident Emmanuel Tetteh. "It is time to redeem the town from the vampires of water to factories." Residents argue that these decisions, initially made for political reasons, must be reversed by the new government.
Also a passionate appeal has been made to Honourable Sedem, the Member of Parliament for Amasaman, to intervene, liberate Amasaman's water supply, and ensure that the welfare of Ghanaian citizens is placed above corporate and managerial interests.
As the technical details of valves and turn agreements create a complex web of mismanagement, the result for thousands remains simple and brutal: an endless wait for a fundamental resource, while the flow of profit and water is allegedly redirected elsewhere.
By: Dennis Ato Keelson
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