Following the revelation that there was no water in the hydrants around the scene of the Labadi gas explosion, particularly the Trade International Trade Fair Centre, Ghana Water Company Limited has indicated it had disconnected water to the area.
The Head of Corporate Communications at the GWCL, Stanley Martey, explained that this was because the Trade Fair had not paid outstanding water bills.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Martey said the disconnection has “been for more than a year because they haven’t paid their bills. They have defaulted in payments for a very long time so we disconnected them.”
He also indicated that the Fire Service should have been well aware of the water situation because the Trade Fair had opted to sink a borehole instead of paying their outstanding bills.
“Instead of them paying their bills so that we would have them reconnected, they sunk a borehole in the Trade Fair. Now that the Trade Fair is using a borehole, is the fire service not aware that the borehole is not enough to combat fire anytime there is a fire outbreak?”
The explosion, which occurred between the Labadi Cemetery and Trade Fair Centre, left six people dead and at least 39 injured.
Mr. Martey also expressed his frustration at what he deemed as a blame game the Ghana Fire Service is indulging in.
After the Fire Service’s Director of Public Affairs, Billy Anaglate, revealed that the absence of water in the hydrants forced the Service to move all the way to Makola in Accra to refill the fire trucks to put the fire out, Mr. Martey said the Fire Service was only using GWCL as a soft target.
“It is not proper at this time to be laying blame and I think that it is high time the fire service stopped blaming the Ghana water company limited anytime they fail in their responsibilities.”
“The softest area to blame is the Ghana Water Company limited and I think it is wrong. I think it is very bad. We have discussed this issue several times and the Fire Service is always quick to lay blame on water not being in the hydrant,” he said.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
