Mr. President, where is the water you promised?

Mr President, I heard the statement you delivered during the World Water Day celebrations last week. It was bursting with water-filled promises to quench the nation’s thirst and attracted loud applause from those gathered to hear your words.

But did it ever occur to you as the head of our household, Ghana, that a number of those who urged you on have serious water problems in their own households?

After 55 years of independence, many Ghanaians still rely heavily on well-waters for their house chores, despite the huge taxes they pay.

In a rather miserable way to observe the day, I chose to sit by the tap I fixed two decades ago and wondered when it was going to break its ‘virginity’ because it has been dry since it was fixed even though I pay bills every month.

So I kept asking myself for how long will I be paying bills for fresh air, meanwhile I trek several miles to get a bucket of water every morning.

For the past twenty years I have lived in Dome-Kwabenya with no water to drink, bath or even wash clothes; though I have constantly been billed for nothing! My hard earned money always goes down the drain – or not, as the case may be.

Mr President, I have even been paying for you to bath and drink potable water in the hope that I will get some even though I have not seen the commodity for years.

The sound that constantly greets me whenever I open my tap is “Hweee”. Mr President bad governance, of which yours is no different, over the years has continued to endanger the lives of the downtrodden in our society.

Mr President, don’t you know that drinking of polluted water is one of the major causes of dreadful diseases like typhoid, elephantiasis and a host of others?

Hmmm! If you are not aware you can ask medical practitioners because I am told you guys move around with at least three doctors whenever you travel.

Mr President, a few months ago I celebrated with you the taking over of the water supply sector by Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) from Aqua Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL) hoping that things would get better, but that turned out to be just a wishful thinking. In fact, I was daydreaming!

Not long ago, you said to parliament that it was time for people to do their work and for the people of this country to be provided with the best of services, you said the finance minister was going to present to you a comprehensive agenda to end the crises at hand.

But did you hear the Finance Minister, Seth Terpker, who chose to speak ‘plenty’ grammar and mathematics instead of telling Ghanaians what your government was doing to arrest the crises crippling the nation, when reading the budget statement a few months ago. It was rhetoric as usual!

In fact, he sounded no different from the Meteorological Department, who always mislead the citizenry with incorrect predictions.

Mr President, where did you get the ‘water figures’ you enumerated when addressing the gathering on that fateful day because the public relations outfit of GWCL could not produce any statistics when I requested for them. Stanley Martey, Public Affairs Manager of GWCL, murmured like a child when I caught up with him on the phone.

I have come to accept that while I live I may not be able to see water running in my taps, that I may not be able to drink potable water and that I will one day die of a disease I contracted from sachet water I bought on the street. While I live, I will also continue to buy water at exorbitant prices from water-tank companies who are ripping off the masses.

Mr. President, I accept the challenges, but always pray that my children will grow to see different Ghana, a Ghana they can be proud of, a Ghana with an abundance of water, a Ghana led by conscious politicians, a Ghana freed of the problems of today for a better Ghana tomorrow.