Audio Attachment:Listen to Stanley Martey |
Kwabena Boateng-Aidoo, Chief Executive Officer of Santa Baron Ventures Limited, suppliers of Aluminium Sulphate or Alum to the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has stated emphatically that his company has never supplied any expired chemical for water treatment to the GWCL.
An Aluminium Sulphate or Alum which was imported to be used by the Ghana Urban Water Company to purify tap water expired in June last year, raising serious public health questions prompting the national security to dispatch BNI operatives to the Weija water treatment plant to carry out further investigations.
According to Mr. Kwabena Boateng-Aidoo, his company for the past years has being the sole distributor of Alum to the GWCL and issues on fake or expired chemicals have never been raised until recently.
�It is true I supply the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) with chemicals. For the past years I have never supplied them or imported any expired chemicals for used. I don�t know what is going on but none of my chemicals imported to them (GWCL) were expired.
�Anytime we ship the chemicals, we give the document to GWCL to clear from the habour and since we started work with them, that has been the procedure and they can testify to that,� he opined.
Speaking on Adom FM to unblemished issues about his company�s� expired chemicals to the GWCL, the CEO of Santa Baron said the Ghana Water Company Limited early this year had a delinquent to clear the chemicals from the habour after requesting for another bill of laden since the original document given to them was purportedly to have been mislaid.
�We (Santa Baron)) gave them the document to clear the chemicals which they misplaced, so they (GWCL) called for another which I provided. It took us four to six weeks to get the document back which we have to bear the cost again. Our bank has to guarantee to that before we were able to get the document back from our partners,� he said.
He however said; �before they (GWCL) accept any of our chemicals, we present to them samples of the chemicals to be tested before it is approved. They would have raised issues if our chemicals were expired of fake. We will never supply chemicals which are expired because our company is well registered and known for long so we will never do that.�
He emphasized that, his former suppliers from China consigned chemicals which had only a year to expire but he raised issues and rejected the chemicals.
�Our chemicals are now being supplied by a Romania company due to issues we had with the China company, our former suppliers. So we always make sure our chemicals are authentic. The manufactures of the chemicals will be in the country to testify the alleged expired chemicals. All our chemicals are 2013 made,� he stated.
He assured Ghanaians of their safety since water is a major necessity in our daily activities.
�I drink Ghana water so do the President and all Ghanaians, I will not do anything or import expired chemicals to cause mayhem in the country. I promise Ghanaians that, all our chemicals supply to the GWCL are authentic. We are ready to prove with documents if the government set up any committee and invite us for query,� he said.
Meanwhile, the Public Affairs Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited, Stanley Martey on Wednesday told Adom FM that; �This chemical has not been used; it has not been used at all.�
He said the water being produced by the company is supposed to meet certain standards, stressing that there was no way the company would distribute water to the public that does not meet the standards set by the Ghana Standards Authority and World Health Organisation.
He further explained that the chemical in question was now being delivered to them and none has been used for production.
Mr. Martey noted that they went through a process, which lasted over a year, to get the chemical delivered to them without knowing the expiring date as of the time it was being imported.
He said the national security has been called upon to help retrieve the expired chemical from their warehouses.
�We will not know or see the chemical until delivery. So at the point of delivery, we realized this so we have asked the national security to support us to retrieve all the chemicals,� he maintained.
�We want to assure the general public that we are not distributing unwholesome water, we are giving them the best quality that we can.�
Source: King Edward Ambrose Addo/ Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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