Dubila community appeal for help

Dubila (U/E), June 23, GNA - Parts of Dubila in the Bolgatanga Municipality lack portable water and rely solely on a stream for their source of drinking water. There is no school, no health facility and children in the community have to walk five kilometres to the Bongo District to attend school.

People do the same to seek health care but this becomes impossible when it rains and the stream gets full. These came to light when the Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy(NORPRA), a civil society organization advocating for the deprived and marginalized in the three northern regions conducted newsmen round the community to have a look at the situation. Mr Apika Akosomsane, a representative of the chief of Dubila, said the community had been neglected for far too long and seemed not to be part of the country.

He said as Ghanaians they all cast their votes and pay levies and taxes and wondered why the municipal assembly should deprive the area of some basic needs such as water, health services, schools and roads.

Mr. Akosomsane appealed to the government, the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly, the Member of Parliament for the area and non-governmental organizations to come to the aid of the community. A representative of the Women's group, Madam Florence Ataribora, reiterated the need for the government to assist the community with portable water because the women spend so much time searching for water during the dry season and sometimes had to dig the river bed to get water.

She said rubbish including used condoms are sometime found in the stream that they rely on for their source of drinking water. Students of Junior High School and Primary School in the area told the GNA that they were often sent back home by their teachers for not taking their bath and that discouraged them from going to school. The President of NORPRA, Mr Bismark Ayorogo Adongo, said the situation in Dubila was a source of worry. He said the country could not boast of having a vibrant and resilient economy when people in the most deprived areas were left to suffer from getting basic needs.