The University of Education, Winneba in the Central region has been without water since Wednesday because the Ghana Water Company limited (GWCL) has cut water supply to the University because of debts owed the GWCL by the government.
As a result, some of the students have been forced to shoulder additional costs, by booking rooms in nearby Guest houses just to bath or ease themselves, whilst others who cannot afford this luxury have to walk several miles just to fetch water, the SRC President of the University, Kadri Rahman told Citi FM on Thursday.
Kadri Rahman lamented, “One of my colleagues had to book a room in a Guest House purposely because he wanted to bath and ease himself.
He went on: “All the water closets are choked with fecal matter because there is no water; there is also no water to bath; the stench from the washrooms is just too much: it is just unbearable.
“Imagine spending time which you would have used to concentrate on academic, work to search for water.
“What is even more worrying is that all the water in our reservoir is finished”.
Kadri added that following the incident, the student body had written a letter and copied the Ministry of Education in charge of Tertiary, Chief of Staff, the Winneba branch of the Ghana Water Company but no response had come from any of the parties.
The Student body also lamed government for not settling the two year debt it owes the GWCL, for which reason, the school’s taps are not flowing.
“Government at a point would tell us [students] that they would settle the debts and at another point, the same government would go behind us and tell GWCL not to supply us with water. What type of double standard is this”, Kadri quizzed.
The SRC president warned government and the GWCL that all the students would demonstrate on the streets of Winneba if water was not restored by Friday afternoon.
This warning comes at a time when the government has decided to make tertiary students pay their own utility bills.
However, the National Union of Ghana Students says it will resist any attempts by the government to make students to foot their own utility bills.
