Safe Water Network (SWN) Ghana has issued a public assurance that water dispensed through its treatment stations across the country remains uncontaminated, even as illegal mining continues to degrade Ghana’s major river systems and push the national water quality index to new lows.
Charles Nimako, Country Director of Safe Water Network Ghana, made the declaration on the sidelines of the organisation’s 16th Beyond the Pipe Forum, held in Accra on Tuesday, March 18, 2026.
“Safe Water Network can confidently say our water is safe for consumption because we don’t treat surface water. We go underground,” Nimako told journalists. He noted that the exception is the Volta Region, where stations draw from the Volta Lake, which he described as still unaffected by galamsey pollution.
He said that beyond internal quality testing, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) had independently tested water from Safe Water Network’s stations and given a clean bill of health on all occasions.
A widening national crisis
The assurance comes against a backdrop of mounting concern about Ghana’s water safety. According to the Water Resources Commission, over 60 percent of Ghana’s water bodies have been polluted by illegal mining activities, with rivers including the Pra, Ankobra, Offin, Birim and Tano now carrying sediment and toxic chemicals at concentrations that in some areas exceed World Health Organisation safety standards.
Operational reports from Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) indicate that turbidity levels at some river intake points have risen to tens of thousands of times above what water treatment plants were originally designed to handle, forcing facilities in the Central, Western, Eastern and Ashanti Regions to reduce output or shut down entirely when incoming water becomes untreatable.
Scientists at the CSIR Water Research Institute have separately warned that attempting remediation while illegal mining continues to discharge mercury, cyanide and silt daily is unlikely to produce lasting results without strict source control and sustained law enforcement.
Safe Water Network’s current reach
Safe Water Network’s stations currently provide safe water access to more than 650,000 people across Ghana, including nearly 18,000 customers connected through piped systems serving homes, schools, healthcare facilities and businesses nationwide.
Nimako said the reliance on groundwater and the Volta Lake as source inputs has so far insulated the network’s customers from the contamination affecting surface water users, but stressed that ending illegal mining remains critical for the long-term health of all water sources in the country.
