K. K. D

Optometrist ||MOBA|| Casford || Books || Tech Enthusiast

[Bright Simons @BBSimons]

Friends sent me messages asking what I knew about the ICC arbitration award of $235 million issued against Ghana in favour of a Spanish company and Standard Bank of South Africa on 17 September 2026 for breach of a water desalination contract.

Truth is I had been studying the project for years until 2024 when it slipped off my radar.

Thing, though, is that those asking know perfectly well that the account will just increase their blood pressure. So, why bother?

Still, I will tell you about it. If only to keep alive our anti-katanomics campaign.

1. A desalination plant removes salt from water to make it drinkable and usable in various ways.

2. Why should a country full of rivers be pumping seawater into a plant to filter it? The rough argument was something like the following.

3. Teshie Nungua and other coastal areas have seen a population explosion. Water treatment plants near enough to distribute water to those areas simply aren’t able to keep up. Meanwhile the sea is just next door. Why not just pump the water from it and bypass some of the low pressure constraints?

4. The problem is that pumping seawater and cleaning it of salt is very energy-intensive. It costs considerably more than treating inland water. Also, it is the same pipe network one has to use to distribute the desalinated water anyway. Which is probably why desalination has never featured on any of Ghana’s water strategies to date.

5. The Spanish offer to build the Teshie (Befesa) desalination plant was unsolicited. The advantage was that construction wasn’t all that more expensive than other projects on the drawing board (see attached chart) and they could move fast (Kpong phase II has stalled since 2015). Clearly, no one paid much attention to running costs.

6. The Spanish-Japanese consortium’s proposal came in April 2010. By March 2012, it was already before Parliament, which promptly waived $73 million in taxes. Anyone who knows Ghana would tell you that this is not routine. Their local partners, Hydrocol, must have been super effective.

7. Though Parliament was told it would cost $110 million, the investors say they spent ~$125 million.

8. The investors (Abengoa-Sojitz) were to run it for 25 years, produce 13.2 million (UK) gallons of water a day, get paid by Ghana Water (GWL) for it, and hand over the plant to Ghana in 2040. (Accra consumes ~140 million gallons of the ~230 million gallons of water GWL produces daily nationwide.)

9. For every 220 gallons, GWL was to pay $1.52. But there was also a fixed charge of $1.42 million that was payable every month regardless of how much water was being produced. I.e. Take or Pay. And $6.98m for electricity on top.

10. But in 2020, SIGA seemed to suggest that costs were higher. Its 25-year revenue forecast of about $1.3 billion for the plant works out at roughly $52m a year, or about $2.37 for every 220 gallons of water.

11. Ghana Water later told reporters that between February and August 2015 it received GH¢5.72m from selling the plant's water and spent GH¢48.68m buying and moving it, a cost recovery ratio of 11.8 per cent.

12. By October 2017 the utility said it was paying about GH¢8m a month to the project and collecting GH¢2m, a monthly loss of GH¢6m.

13. On 1 January 2018 Ghana Water shut the plant, with its communications head citing excessive operating costs.

14. Abengoa-Sojitz threatened, politely, to call the World Bank guarantee (~$179m). The shutdown was eventually reversed.

15. Five weeks later, Abengoa announced that AquaVenture Holdings Curaçao N.V. would acquire the Ghana project for $47m (minus offsets for the loans etc.)

16. Despite $50m from American DFI, OPIC, the deal fell apart and was cancelled in November 2019.

17. After the AquaVenture deal collapsed, the arrangement settled into an uneasy routine. The Finance Ministry quietly took over most of the payments because despite charging all Ghanaian consumers a special surcharge for the Teshie plant, GWL still couldn’t afford to pay the investors when bills came due.

18. All this while, the plant had constantly delivered below 70% of the contracted capacity (~60% in 2022.)

19. By 2023, Abengoa, then an $18bn infrastructure juggernaut, was on the verge of bankruptcy. It went under in April and was bought by Cox for $618 million. Scaling the purchase price proportionately means the Ghana assets changed hands for barely $1.6 million.

20. In May 2024, Befesa (the Teshie plant now run by Cox) told Ghana that heavy rains had rendered the plant inoperable, and that surveys found structural defects and inadequate bracing.

21. On 23 October 2024, Cox and Standard Bank commenced ICC arbitration against Ghana Water, with a companion case against the Republic under the World Bank guarantee.

22. The World Bank’s records show, however, that the guarantee on Standard Bank's loan and swap was cancelled on 31 December 2023 and 24 October 2024. The second date falls one day after the arbitration began. What a coincidence.

23. After the change of government in January 2025, the budget support which had kept the plant paid seemed to have been withheld.

24. On 31 October 2025 Ghana Water shut the plant. In January 2026 it published a rationing schedule.

25. After Cox and Standard Bank won against Ghana, the government announced that it is negotiating to buy the plant. Ghana Water's proposal for the 2026 to 2030 tariff period included a desalination cost of GH¢482.97m for 2026, including a capacity charge of GH¢316.01m. That is about $30.2m, nearly double the $15m to $17m a year seen in actual invoices.

26. Essentially, Ghana now wants to buy a plant and run it at double the cost of what it couldn’t pay before that got it whopped at arbitration.

27. Meanwhile the reverse osmosis membranes are all a mess, meaning another big refurbishment contract.

28. The crazy thing in all of this is that since 2010, the amount of water wasted in the Ghana Water system has increased significantly to 52% of all water produced. Fixing half of that would deliver nearly 8x the desalination plant’s output at ~5% of the cost.

29. Kpong Phase II, which would cost $373 million, deliver 3x the amount of water being supplied by the desalination plant, and at a cost of 40% (using the SIGA benchmark) remains stalled.

30. If you add up Ghana’s spending on this project so far plus the arbitral award, you come to more than $500m. For that money, Kpong Phase II and half of all neglected transmission mains' repairs could have been done. Delivering 72 million more gallons per day, nearly the entire pipe water shortfall in Greater Accra.

[Chefabbys @chefabbys]

A printing company reached out and said chef Abbys, we love you. We want to personally take care of all your Big street feast branding expenses. Oh Chale. I wan cry sef

[EL-DAD @ChristDeKing]

just look at how the street lights in Cotonou. Greater Accra Regional Minister, look at your colleagues.

Fix the street lights!

[Chefabbys @chefabbys]

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

We are incredibly excited to announce Coca-Cola as our Headline Beverage Partner for The Big Street Feast 2.0! 🥳❤️

Coca-Cola is supporting The Big Street Feast with over 75,000 FREE bottles of Coca-Cola and Voltic Drinking Water to be distributed across the event! I am actually crying😭

[Chefabbys @chefabbys]

I promise I know you guys miss my recipes 😭🥹

[John Dramani Mahama @JDMahama]

The world may not transform overnight because of the speeches delivered in this August Assembly. But history faithfully records the truth we choose to speak, and the silence we choose to keep, when we are granted the privilege of addressing this global town hall. #UNGA81

[Osagyefo Oliver Barker-Vormawor @barkervogues]

The Ghana Bar Association has issued a statement to condemn the attempted unlawful arrest of Baffour Awuah. I want to commend them for it.

For years the Ghana Bar Association forgot I was a lawyer too. I was at the mercy of the regime. On my way to court I was even arrested for not observing road markings when I was driving on a road that had no road markings. 😂

A lawyer coming to represent us when we were arrested was slapped and the GBA fought against the Regional Bar that spoke up. Several young law students awaiting their call to the Bar including Timothy Selikem Donkor; Agaaya Adongo and many others were manhandled and locked up for showing up at a protest.

When Ama Governor was arrested after she was called to the Bar for attending a protest, the GBA looked away. She was either not enough of a lawyer or it era the wrong era.

This is why many people accuse the GBA of partisanship.

So yes, I like the new found voice of the GBA. I only wish it didn’t lose it ever so often in 8 year cycles.

Shalom

[𝓙𝓸𝓼𝓱 @Fatu_Era]

I told the class I want to be a comedian and they all laughed

[Osagyefo Oliver Barker-Vormawor @barkervogues]

President @JDMahama yesterday gave a fantastic and heartfelt speech at the UN; calling for more international action on ending Genocide in Gaza and holding Isreal accountable.

All over, from international friends and former colleagues at the UN, I was basking in congratulations as if na me be the President.

Then on the same day, the Minister for Defense was hosting the Israeli Ambassador, and said he was “reaffirming shared commitment to peace, security and sustainable development.” and “acknowledged the warm and longstanding relationship between Ghana and Israel and expressed confidence in the prospects for further strengthening the partnership.”

The Defence Minister also called for “enhanced collaboration in critical areas such as surveillance systems, cyber defence and advanced technologies.“

🤦🏿‍♂️

I su-err the continuing Policy and ideological incoherences are what make Ghana such a baffling country.

A couple of days ago, the President through Callistus Mahama warned against creating unnecessary martyrs of offensive speech and cautioning restraint in the security agencies. They even went further to ask MFWA and GIJ to convene an event. The Next day EOCO creates an unnecessary publicity stunt when a lawyer went to court over these same issues.

Sometimes I feel like we have a progressive presidency, surrounded by some persons with real ideological depth; who still haven’t found a way to get the substructure to align with the vision. That’s baffling to me.

The Presidency must command the State machinery that produces more of its politics, takes directions from the top or the reset is just a pipe dream.

The president cannot be chasing after his workmen, walking back “Arabic” policies, positioning the right messaging after the horse has bolted from the stable.

The President is in charge! What happens then when he becomes perceived as a lame duck? The pigs will take over and run the farm.

Unless of course the incoherences are intentional! Which would be much disappointing!

Shalom

[Masoûd A. | Stop Galamsey Now! @_nursing_guy]

In a 2024 report, WaterAid warned that Ghana might have to import water by 2030 under a “business-as-usual” scenario as drinking water sources shrink due to pollution, especially from galamsey.

The state water utility has repeatedly cautioned that without curbing illegal mining and pollution, Ghana risks becoming an importer of water by 2030.

Researchers from the University of Cape Coast have stated that Ghana may have to import water by 2030 because of the inability to treat highly turbid

The Water Research Institute has warned that if current pollution trends continue, there could be no treatable surface or groundwater by 2030, implying the need to import water.

The core driver is severe pollution of major rivers, such as the Pra, Ankobra, and others from galamsey, which has:

* Raised turbidity levels far beyond treatment thresholds

* Reduced GWCL’s capacity to supply clean water in some areas by up to 75%

* Increased treatment costs and made some sources effectively untreatable with current infrastructure

Why is the government not actively implementing measures to address galamsey?

#StopGalamseyNow

[Kwabena Owusu💎 @mrowusu__]

Why should I struggle to get a job and then struggle even harder to get trotro EVERY morning and evening?
Why?
why should it be so?

[Nana B. @koboateng]

Ghana is at a strange point where some people would rather convince you to accept the “lesser evil” than demand better from whoever is actually in charge.

“The other party was worse” does not fix your road, give you water or improve your hospital.

Elections are for choosing governments.

The years between elections are for holding them accountable. Ghana Must Work. 🇬🇭

[Patience 🇬🇭#StopGalamseyNow @Bobthebuil19383]

You people do not realize how terrible this situation is. We are in a water crisis. The contamination is not just the silt and mud you can see, it also includes toxic substances such as mercury and other pollutants from illegal mining. When will you people wake up #StopGalamseyNow

[E!💗🤌🏾 @EsinamSt]

Sir, please, can you come back and check on the progress on this road? It’s really terrible!
There is SERIOUS DUST on the road, and the worst part is that nobody is working or doing anything on it. It’s been months now and NO PROGRESS at all. It’s really sad.

[Jacqueline Ansomah Yeboah @Shejackiesays]

These are “illegal mining” visuals I captured earlier today while travelling to a location I can’t disclose just yet.

Along the route, particularly around and beyond Konongo, we came across several pockets of surface mining activity happening remarkably close to the highway and surrounding communities.
Whether these operations are licensed or not is something that requires verification and that’s exactly where the questions begin.
We know the environmental damage left behind by mining in some areas around Konongo. The bigger question is: what happens to these lands when the gold is gone?
And as new mining activity emerges, especially close to major roads and communities, perhaps it is worth asking: Who is monitoring these operations, what are the regulations, and are they being followed?

For now, I’ll leave you with the visuals. What do you see?

Has NAIMOS seen these or they are licensed?

#StopGalamseyNow

[HALIMA🇨🇲 @_ManuellaM_]

As a Third World country, we can’t keep skipping industrialization and jumping straight into digitalization. We cannot be talking about owning our own AI when we don’t have the electricity day to day activities less to talk about a data center

[Dr. Banda Khalifa @dr_bandak]

This was the feedback I got when I cold-emailed a potential supervisor in 2020.

I had asked a simple question: what would make my application competitive?

I expected a polite deflection, or nothing. Most cold emails get nothing.

Instead, a professor in the program sent back four sentences that I have used in every PhD statement I have reviewed since.

She said: explain very clearly

→ Why you want a PhD,

→ What you plan to do with it,

→ What specific questions you most want to study, and why,

→ and which faculty members you would most like to work with to get there.

That is the entire PhD statement.

Four questions. Everything else is supporting evidence.

Read them again and notice what is missing.

No childhood story.

No "passion for research."

No paragraph about the university's reputation.

Six years later, that email is still the clearest description of a PhD statement I have ever read, and someone wrote it in under two minutes while answering a stranger.

Two lessons in one: send the cold email, because sometimes the reply is a blueprint.

And when a professor tells you exactly what they are looking for, build the document around it.

If you are applying for a PhD this cycle, answer those four questions in one paragraph each.

Then look at what you have.

——

The four-question structure is the backbone of the PhD track in the Statement Lab on October 3.

26 seats out of 50 remaining!

[𝐉 𝐀 𝐘 𝐒 𝐓 𝐄 𝐑 𝐋 𝐈 𝐍 𝐆 @Jay___Sterling]

Right in front of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, the street lights are not working

You haven't fixed yours, how will you fix ours? Smh

[Ziyad Yakubu @Ziyad_yakubu]

Imagine Country A has cocoa and Country B has chocolate factories.

Country A sells cocoa to Country B and buys back chocolate. Everyone is happy.

But then Country A realizes it would make a lot more money by processing its cocoa itself, so it does.

Now Country B is furious, because overnight it has lost a source of raw material and a market.

So Country B finds a few people in Country A with grievances or hardline ideologies, gives them a few weapons, and says, "Go carry out your activities where Country A is building this factory."

Now Country A has a problem: its country is destabilized. So it goes to Country B to buy weapons.

Country B says, "Fine, we will sell you weapons, but you must agree to scrap that factory."

So Country A scraps its factory and resumes selling cocoa and importing chocolate.

Country A gets its weapons, Country B gets its raw material and market, and they live happily ever after.

This post has very little to do with chocolate. But now I need some chocolate. Which do you recommend, Cadbury or Nestlé?

[Timothy Selikem Korku Donkor @DonkorST]

You have no idea the disdain I have for the education system in Ghana.

No idea.

Our mental capacity is under-utilised and we are forced to memorize instead of to creatively think.

You wouldn't realise how much harm has been done until you go to foreign institutions.
We are so so behind.