WATER SHORTAGE HITS YENDI MUNICIPALITY (PAGE 21)

Story: Zakaria Alhassan, Yendi

ECONOMIC and social activities in the Yendi Municipality have suffered a serious setback following an acute water shortage that has hit the area for some weeks now.
The only source of potable water for the area, River Dakar (White Volta), also known as Kulekpeni, has virtually dried up compelling the people to travel long distances in search of potable water.
The education sector has suffered most as pupils and students have to wake up early in the morning to search for water for use before attending classes.
It is for this reason that residents have passionately appealed to the government and other philanthropic organisations to come to their aid to ameliorate their current difficulties.
As an interim measure, the Northern Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC), in collaboration with the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), despatched eight water tankers from Tamale to the municipality on Wednesday to serve the people.
The Northern Regional Co-ordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation, Mr Alhassan Mahmoud, on behalf of the Regional Minister, Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, led a group which included the Regional Manager of the GWCL, Mr Samuel Mensah.
The tankers were mobilised from the GWCL, the Prisons Service, Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and Zoomlion Ghana Limited, a waste management organisation.
Mr Mensah gave the assurance that his outfit would strive to sustain the supplies until the situation was brought under control.
The Municipal Chief Executive, Alhaji Mohammed Habib Tijani, said if measures were not taken to address the situation, there could be an epidemic.
He said the municipality was vast and that more tankers were needed to extend their services to the rural communities.
Alhaji Tijani further stated that most people had resorted to drinking contaminated water, a situation that could result in the emergence of guinea worm and other water- borne diseases.
He, however, stressed the need for the people to protect the water source by planting trees and also desisting from farming and engaging in other activities around the water banks to prevent the river from further drying up in future.