By Sunday Elijah
In Ghana, the National Association of Sachet and Packaged Water Producers (NASPAWAP), says Ghanaians will start paying new prices for packaged water, effective Friday, 1st April.
Each water sachet will sell at ¢0.40, while a bag of the sachet water, 500ml by 30pcs, will be sold at ¢6 maximum from the retail trucks.
A 500ml of bottled water will sell at ¢2. while, iced bottled water of 750ml or medium size will be sold at ¢2.50.
Mini shops, however, will retail the commodity at ¢8 per bag maximum. The 1.5L or large bottled water will be sold at ¢3.50.
The Association says the development is informed by the increasing cost of raw materials and fuel and the cedi’s depreciation.
“At our previous review, the dollar’s exchange rate was in the region of ¢6.50. Currently, it is inching up to ¢8.50. Fuel which forms a major cost of distributing the products to the market centres, has significantly gone up since our last review,” President of NASPAWAP, Magnus Nunoo, explained saying most of the inputs and packaging materials which were mainly imported and produced from petroleum sources have become expensive.
He, however, cautioned that there might be slight variations in prices across the regions due to haulage to remote and distant areas.
The president further appealed to government to review the tax policies on packaged water industry to help reduce the financial burden to save the industry.