Improving access to water: NGO hands over boreholes to 20 Upper East communities

Accessing potable water is a major concern for residents of many rural and remote communities in the Upper East Region.

Many women and children on a daily basis are compelled to trek long distances in search of water, mostly from streams, rivers, ponds and other open water sources for their daily and economic activities.

A worrying development is the fact that schoolchildren often lose instructional hours in search of water to bath or to attend to nature’s call, as some of them report to school late or do not go to school after walking long distances.

The absence of potable water in many rural school settings also compels many schoolchildren to run home to drink water and return to school, while some on reaching home no longer have the urge to go back to school.

To address this age-old problem, Drilling for Hope, a United States of America (USA) based non-governmental organisation (NGO), has constructed a borehole each for 20 communities in the Upper East Region.

The boreholes, which have been constructed within the compounds of the basic schools located in the beneficiary communities, are to provide safe drinking water for the school pupils and members of the communities who, hitherto, had to walk two kilometres a day to fetch water.

The beneficiary communities are Yua, Amutanga, Natugnia, Sirigu, Nabango, Chongbema, Kowagnia and Zuarungu. Others are Mirigu, Manyoro, Gunta Nasa, Dachio, Tongo Beo, Zogsa, and Nyariga.

The rest are Leenbiisi-Moshidabooro, Anerigu, Nayagnia, Yua taribisi and Chuchuliga.

Safe water

Speaking at a ceremony to hand over one of the boreholes at Yua in the Kassena Nankana Municipality, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NGO, Karen Flewelling, said her vision was to provide safe drinking water to residents living in rural communities.

She said, “my passion is to ensure that school pupils in rural settings have access to potable water so as to remain in school, which would go a long way to end the culture where children run home to drink water”.

“My utmost desire is to make potable water available and close to rural schools to enable the school pupils to stay in school to acquire the needed education to become responsible and capable of contributing to the growth and development of the society,” she noted.

She explained that water was a basic necessity of life and that there was the need for it to be provided to especially rural dwellers to enable them to live quality lives, saying, “it is totally unacceptable for young children in particular to walk long distances to fetch water.”

Ms Flewelling entreated the community members to take absolute care of the borehole projects to enable them to stand the test of time to benefit other generations who would come after them.

She said “this borehole project has been provided for you for a purpose and it is your duty to own it and put in place the needed maintenance plan so that it can be regularly maintained to last longer.

“The lifespan of this project must be prolonged so that children and women would not go back to their old way of walking long distances to fetch water for domestic use”.

The head teachers of Taribisi Junior High School (JHS) and the Leenbiisi-Moshidabooro D/A primary, Mark Agale and Emmanuel Ayeribire Azubire, lauded the NGO for the water project, saying it was a big relief to the users.

They pledged to put in place a proper maintenance plan to prevent the facility from breaking down, since a lot of money had been invested in it.

The Assembly member for the Yua electoral area, Raymond Ayine, also lauded the NGO for giving them life as a result of the construction of the borehole and promised to take good care of the facility.

Women groups in the beneficiary communities could not hide their joy and excitement as they sang traditional songs and danced to express their gratitude to Ms Flewelling and her team for the gesture to them.

Writer’s email: gilbert.agbey@graphic.com.gh