Story: Zakaria Alhassan, Tamale
WATER is life. This wise but simple expression amply explains the importance of water to the survival of human beings and all living things alike.
It further gives meaning to the desperation of the people of the Northern Region, who often walk for long distances in search of water for consumption and domestic purposes.
Even though water is found everywhere, especially during the rainy season, there is indeed very little to drink resulting in wastage of the abundant rainwater that is allowed to slip away as a result of the lack of dugouts, dams and wells to store it for the dry season.
It is a common sight to see women and children walking dangerously along roads, paths and bushes at the various villages and towns in search of water that has not only become a precious commodity, but also difficult to get in the region.
The deplorable and recurrent situation is not limited to the rural communities, as the Tamale metropolis has also gone through worst times during the recurrent water crisis in the metropolis over the years now. The latest area to suffer from the crisis are the Yendi Municipality and Tamale.
People normally cut short their sleep to search for potable water at every nook and cranny of the metropolis, resulting in workers and students reporting to their workplaces and schools late. Some schoolchildren simply abandon school to assist their parents and guardians in their search of water.
During such difficult times, plastic water cans in various shapes and colours, buckets and big size metal containers (garawa), are commonly seen in the metropolis, dangling on the heads of despondent and weary looking girls and women.
The most pathetic people are the nursing mothers, who strap their babies on their backs. The ‘‘lucky’’ ones carry the containers on their bicycles, motorbikes and vehicles.
It is, therefore, little wonder that guinea worm and other waterborne diseases are still prevalent in this part of the country in spite of the various interventions to stem the tide. The only solution lies in the constant provision of potable water for the people.
A 41-year-old housewife at Tali, in the Tolon/Kumbungu District, Madam Azara Fuseini, had this to say, ‘‘My brother, we are tired of these recurrent shortage of water. It is time the government identifies our plight and come to our aid because we all pay taxes in one way or the other”.
Master Ibrahim Sule, a class six pupil in the most endemic guinea worm area in the country at the moment, the Savelugu/Nanton District, said as a result of the perennial water shortage, ‘‘I often abandon school for days to help my mother look for water to cook and bath me and my siblings.”
He said some of his siblings and schoolmates have often contracted the debilitating guinea worm disease that kept them away from school for several months.
This sad situation is not peculiar to the area alone as it pertains in almost all the 23 districts of the region, including Tamale.
‘‘I have now come to accept the situation as normal because constant water shortage has existed in Tamale since I was born 20 years ago; my mother told me,’’ Balchisu Inusah of Kalpohini Senior High School in Tamale bemoaned.
It is, however, hoped that work on the 45 million euro water rehabilitation and expansion project for the Tamale metropolis and its surrounding areas would be completed this year as scheduled.
The funds include a 24 million euro grant from the Dutch government and a loan of 20 million euros from the ING Bank of The Netherlands. The project is, however, yet to commence.
The two-year project, which commenced in 2006, is being executed by Messrs Biwater of Netherlands.
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