Women at the Gukpegu-Tua, a suburb of Tamale metropolis in the northern region have begun wailing as their only source of water dries up. The women since the beginning of the dry season have been competing with animals in dam which water turned muddy and the quantity of water reduced to the barre’s minimum.
The dam only becomes useful for any household activity after treating it with alum before. Access to clean water remains topmost priority for the women spent most of their time on daily bases looking for water.
The women in an interview with Zaa News on their usual struggles raised concerns about the encroachment of the dam land area and how polluted their water is becoming. On this year’s World Water Day with the theme; “Valuing water”, asks: What does water mean to me? The women expressed doubts about the commitment of Ghanaian leaders efforts towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015.
Goal 6 which focuses on clean water and sanitation for all mandates countries to ensure that there is safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030. But according to the women, there is no indication that the government through the assembly will provide them pipe born water and that the drying up of their only source of water is a big source of worry. Neighboring communities to Gukpegu-Tua such as Vettin gets water though not frequent from the Ghana Company Limited.
The women described the situation as frustrating explaining that they will soon have to travelled 4-5 kilometers to Jarigu, Lahagu and Kudula for water. This, they lamented affects their petty trading activities.
They want municipal authorities and the member of parliament to intervene and save their lives.
On the world water day, they women wished they had clean water like their counterparts in the nearby communities. “If the situation becomes critical, our husbands used their motor bikes to assist us” one of the women told Zaa News on banks of their drying dam.
She continues; we value the theme ‘Valuing Water’ because we struggle on daily bases for it but is very scares and sometimes not available, how do we value it, she quizzed.
School children concerns
Corroborating with their mothers, pupils at Gukpegu-Tua Sunniya primary school said the situation is affecting their schooling. They call on the Tamale metropolitan assembly,d the member of parliament for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu and philanthropists to assist in extending pipelines to their community.
For the pupils at Gukpegu primary school, their persistent late to school is a result of the distance they and their mothers travel to fetch water on daily bases and help to address their problem is welcome.
“The water in the dam is not good for drinking but they have option, when you fetch the water, you have to boil before bathing which takes time and made us late to school” the class 4 pupil Mohammed Abdul Wadud narrated.
Whilst calling for clean water, he appealed to the authorities to provide short term solution by desilt their only dam which is almost empty now.
