Nana Akomea: Introduction Of Water Pre-Paid Meters Is Laudable

The former Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) 2012 election campaign, Nana Akomea has said the idea of Ghana Water Company (GWC) to introduce a new water pre-paid meter is laudable. According to him, the old system of paying water bills should be unheeded to save the stress of consumers visiting offices of GWC to pay their bills. He further said, despite the controversies surrounding the introduction of electricity pre-paid meters, such problems should not be encountered when the pre-paid metering water system is introduced. �Formerly with electricity bills, it takes three to four months before your meter will be read�even with that the ECG had to deploy service men to various houses to do that, this was a long process system and did not help the ECG�s operation. Due to that they (ECG) introduced the pre-paid meter for a better running of their operations. ��Currently, GWC is operating like the ECG before, this cannot be an efficient system. If they want to introduce pre-paid meters for water, they should look at it critically so as not to make the same errors as ECG is making now by imposing huge tariffs,� he said. During the week the GWC announced plans to introduce prepaid meter services for water by the end of the year. According to the GWC, the metering service would first be piloted in some communities in Accra and Kumasi. Speaking on Adom FM, the former NPP legislator advised that �GWC must modify the pre-paid meters to benefit its customers�they should not operate it like how ECG operates its own. The system they are using now is very old�. Adding that, �If they (GWC) say they want to change their method of charging water bills, we should support them but then again they must assure us that there will be no difficulties�.