Tamale Nurses &Midwives School hit by water crisis- principal says it is beyond authorities control

Authorities at the Tamale Nurses and Midwives Training College (NMTC) have warned students to brace themselves for a prolonged water crisis. Authorities say the water situation is likely to persist for decades because solutions to the problem are increasingly difficult to find.

The school has suffered through a severe water shortage in the last two years, and students who have borne the brunt of the shortage have been compelled to combine both academic work with search for water because managers of the school have no clue as how to address the problem.

Some of the students, who spoke to Zaa News did not understand why a solution has eluded school authorities.  “As trained health professionals, we will preach for cleanliness among our clients at the hospitals we will find ourselves in, and yet even to keep our clothes clean is a problem,” a frustrated nursing student lamented.

The students are likely to fall prey to people with ulterior motives, who may pretend to be helping them with water. The school campus is awash with yellow gallons, immediately they return from lectures.

“Gallon water” popularly called Kufour or Atta Mills gallons are being sold to the students by generous children around the school at a cost of one Ghana cedi. The latest intervention to help the students was by an aspiring Students Representative Council (SRC) President, who marked down the cost to 70 pesewas per gallon.

For the female students, they have no option but to rely on services from children from the Dohinayili community. Taps have barely functioned since school resumed in late January. The school’s water problems have been largely attributed to a location said to have a low water table in the area and no amount of engineering work can produce a mechanized borehole for them.

Apart from their school fees, students now have to look elsewhere for extra money to buy pipe-borne water from nearby communities because their allowances have not been paid due to government policy. There is growing anxiety among the timid students who fear they may be victimized in their academic work if they speak out.

The Principal of the school, Mr Cosmos Alhassan, in an interaction with Zaa News, admitted the challenge, but said students would have to deal with the crisis in the interim as all available options to get water have not yielded any positive results.

“We have engaged with people who presented beautiful ideas on how to help us address the problem but still we can’t get water,” Mr Cosmos lamented.  According to him, even a Turkish company drilled a mechanized borehole but still there was no water.

The school, he said, managed to get poly tanks to store water but there is no water to store. Asked if his outfit had contacted Ghana Water Company limited for help, he said no cogent explanation was given for the low pressure along the teaching hospital line.

According to  the NTC principal,  students would have to endure the situation like their counterparts elsewhere in the country. A cross section of the students told Zaa News the best solution which is not beyond the school’s capacity was not considered by the authorities.

The solution, according to the students, was for the school to purchase a water tanker at a cost of about forty thousand Ghana cedis to supply students with water. Once it was done supplying students with waters, the tanker could render outside services to those who need them and that will serve as a source of revenue for the school. Sadly, according to the students, authorities parried down those suggestions. Such a move, the students insisted,  would have saved the school over two thousand to four hundred Ghana cedis weekly to purchase of water for the scghool’s kitchen alone.