Acute water shortage hits Otwiso community, residents depend on sachet water

Acute water shortage has hit Otwiso, a community in the Yilo Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region with residents struggling to access potable water for household chores.

Ghana News Agency (GNA), during a visit to communities in the area, chanced on some residents, including school girls at Otwiso, near Nkurankan, carrying basins and gallons in search of water.

The group made up of mostly women and children had to walk distances in search of water from streams and mechanised boreholes and told the GNA that people who could not afford to buy and store bags of sachet water in their houses had to search for water every day.  

They regretted that potable water was now a scarce commodity, an unpleasant situation overburdening and affecting their socio-economic livelihoods, and appealed to the local authorities to come to their aid.

They appealed to the Member of Parliament (MP), the Municipal Assembly, and NGOs to assist in relieving them of the predicament.

Gifty Tetteh, a resident, said some of them had to hire the services of tricycle riders to fetch them water from elsewhere on a daily basis.

Tetteh said though the pipeline from the Bukunor Water Works was very close, the city authorities are yet to connect the community, which has a population of about 500 people.

Another resident, only known as Erica, a pupil of the Nkurakan M/A Basic School, who was seen among the group in their search for water said it was difficult for her to carry the gallon every day to fetch water from that distance.

Attempts by the GNA to reach Albert Tetteh Nyakotey, the MP for the constituency and Eric Tetteh, the Municipal Chief Executive were unsuccessful.