The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, Pura, has fined Nawec D3,500,000 for its “poor water service delivery in its provincial water treatment plants.”
A statement from the authority said Nawec failed to comply with directives for maintaining its plants at Farafenni, Bansang and Soma leading to economic losses and endangerment of the health of the residents.
Pura said it had directed that specific corrective and remedial measures be implemented to ensure that consumers in the affected areas are not exposed to raw water that may pose a risk to their health.
For Farafenni, Pura fined Nawec D500,000 and a daily punitive charge of D25,000 until compliance, for failure to fix a leaking tank resulting in “serious” waste of water, economic losses to the country and environmental hazard and contamination.
A similar fine has been levied for failure to take the necessary measures required to remedy the poor sanitary environment surrounding the chlorine dosing point at in the town which resulted to permanent settling of stagnant water.
Another D500,000 and D25,000 fines was imposed until compliance, for failing to repair and raise the fallen perimeter fence in Farafenni which results to animal intrusion and farrowing within the treatment area in “very unhygienic” conditions.
For Bansang, Pura said Nawec failed to adequately chlorinate the municipal water supply in the town and consequently exposed consumers to associated risks of using raw water. It therefore imposed D500,000 and daily fines of D25,000 until chlorination resumes.
For continued supply of water failing to meet Pura’s minimum standard and failure to improve the environment around the sand filter allowing animals intrusions, Nawec has been fined D500,000 and slammed a daily fine of D25,000 until sand filtration is resumed and iron level drops to the approved standard.
At Soma, the authority fined Nawec D500,000 for failure to adequately chlorinate the municipal water supply for the town thereby exposing the public through raw water supply and risk of contamination and imposed a daily fine of D25,000 until chlorination resumes.
Pura said it “will continue to monitor the situation closely and continue enforcement to ensure compliance with the law.”
Mr Pierre Sylva, the public relations officer at Nawec said he could not immediately comment on the matter as he was not aware of the Pura statement.
The current head of Pura once served as managing director of Nawec.
