Water crisis looms in four communities in West Mamprusi municipality

Correspondence from North East Region

Residents of Tinguri, Yawoku Gbeduri, and Gbani in the West Mamprusi Municipality of the North East Region spend several hours drenched in sweat for water which they say is affecting their daily activities.

The residents in these four communities get their water from a springing stream and dugout due to inadequate boreholes in the

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They describe their source of water as contaminated and infectious but have no other alternative than to drink from that source.

The residents lamented that before someone can get water from the borehole, one has to spend about three to four hours at the pump to eventually get water for household use.

The inadequate boreholes in these communities have compelled the residents, especially, women to always travel a distance to the stream to get springing water which has some algae on the surface.

The women are seen washing their clothes and at the same time plodding their feet inside the water before they can fetch.

speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb, the Assemblyman for the Tinguri electoral area, Mr. Iddrisu Bugzua lamented that women are rejecting marriage proposals from men in these four communities due to the water crisis they face in every dry season.

"If you ask any child of this community or this electoral area what our major problem is, that child will tell you is water. I have one of my sub-chiefs who once even said people find it difficult getting wives from other surrounding communities because any woman they speak to, they will say Tinguri has no water and for that matter when they come they will be toiling and carrying water from distances," he said.

Some of the residents who can afford to buy the water are depending on donkey carts and tricycle drivers to get the water for their household use.



The women who fetch from the only borehole in the area said they spend several hours before they get water to bathe their wards to leave for school.

"When you wake up around 3 am to 4 am for water, you are likely to get a basin of water around 5 to 6 am and because we don't get water hurriedly, the children always go to school late," Nantomah Rafia said.

The residents are appealing to the government and NGOs to come to their aid to provide them with potable drinking water.

Watch the video of the interview below