17-year-old Baba Salihu is in the custody of the Police for stealing several meters of cables supplying power to critical installations at the Ghana Water Company Limited Treatment Plant at Inchaban.
A statement issued by GWCL on Monday, September 25, 2023, said, that since October 2022, the company has been going through difficulties at the hands of cable thieves.
According to the statement, Mr. Solomon Kuwornu, a Senior Technical Assistant at the station on Saturday, was doing some rounds, heard an unusual noise in the old laboratory, and decided to find out what could be happening there.
He traced the noise to the ceiling of the laboratory, thinking it was reptiles that were creating the noise, only to find Salihu lying prostrate on the ceiling to avoid detection.
It however came to light that he had already removed all the cables in the walls and was in the process of removing them on the ceiling when the noise caught the attention of Mr. Kuwornu.
The statement added that in July 2023, the entire electric cables in the late Station Manager’s bungalow were stolen altogether with the 25mm service cables that draw power from the external pole to the house.
All the electrical fittings in the bungalow have also been stolen.
It further said, ” Recently, cables at the trainees’ quarters were equally removed by these miscreants, costing the company huge sums of money to replace them.”
In October 2022, the cables supplying power to the submersible pump at the intake of the plant were stolen rendering the pump useless. The submersible pump is used during the dry season when the water level in the dam goes down such that water cannot flow by gravity to the treatment plant. Due to this cable theft, the Station was unable to engage this special device during the dry season, causing the plant to nearly shut down in March 2023.
_GWCL
