{"id":94018,"date":"2025-09-13T16:30:56","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T16:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=94018"},"modified":"2025-09-13T16:30:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T16:30:56","slug":"if-increasing-tariffs-will-make-ghanaians-sit-up-so-be-it-awula-serwah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=94018","title":{"rendered":"If increasing tariffs will make Ghanaians sit up, so be it \u2013 Awula Serwah"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 3 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Coordinator of Eco-Conscious Citizens, Awula Serwah, says that Ghanaians should accept the proposed 280 per cent water tariff increases by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) if that is what will make citizens take the impact of illegal mining, commonly known as galamsey, seriously.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Prime Insight on Joy Prime<\/strong><\/em> on Saturday, September 13, she said that many citizens have failed to take the galamsey crisis seriously, even though it has poisoned most of the country\u2019s water bodies.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor me, this is very good, because if this is the only thing that will make Ghanaians sit up, then so be it. We are not sitting up on 60% of our water bodies being poisoned because some people think it doesn\u2019t affect them. That\u2019s a very selfish way of looking at things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She noted that while issues such as rising kidney diseases linked to polluted water are often ignored, many only react when their pockets are directly affected.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe only thing we seem to care about is the tariffs that are affecting us directly. We don\u2019t seem to realise that even this water we are about to drink, do we actually know what we are drinking? Whether it\u2019s clear or not does not mean there are no toxins,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She insisted that anything that forces Ghanaians out of complacency is necessary, even if it means steep increases in water bills.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnything that will get us out of our complacency and make us sit up and say \u2018I don\u2019t want to be poisoned,\u2019 so be it. Let them raise the tariffs 300%. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf that is what will make Ghanaians sit up that there\u2019s a cost to illegal mining, then so be it. Let us pay 500% if that will jolt us into sitting up and saying this cancer must be stopped,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Awula Serwah further called for a pause on small-scale mining to allow for a proper clean-up and stronger enforcement. She said that without enforcement, education alone would make little difference.<\/p>\n

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\u201c\u2026Let\u2019s have a pause in this small-scale mining until we can clean up the place and be ready to enforce. The best form of education is enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no point telling people \u2018don\u2019t do this\u2019 if you\u2019re not prepared to enforce. Education is in vain,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Read also: GWCL seeks 280% water tariff hike, blames galamsey for rising costs<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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\"IfCoordinator of Eco-Conscious Citizens, Awula Serwah, says that Ghanaians should accept the proposed 280 per cent water tariff increases by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) if that is what will make citizens take the impact of illegal mining, commonly known as galamsey, seriously.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6679,8488,1883,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-awula-serwah","category-gwcl-tariff-hike","category-national","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}