Four communities in Kassena-Nankana West get mechanized boreholes to end water crisis

Community Legacy Initiative Programme (CLIP), a non-governmental organization has commissioned four mechanized boreholes in four communities in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region.

The Ghana International Foundation (GIF) provided funds to Community Legacy Initiative Programme for the provision of Mechanized Borehole. They donated an amount of GH¢185, 000 for 7 mechanized boreholes"

The beneficiary communities include Katiu-Saa, Kayoro, Chiana-Gwenia, and Pindaa. Three other similar facilities have been commissioned at the Walewale SHS, Naleirigu SHS, and Gambaga Girls SHS all in the North East Region.

Prior to the intervention, the communities depended on wells and other open water sources for drinking, cooking, and other domestic uses.

The consumption of unsafe water from the unwholesome sources aside from negatively impacting the socio-economic activities of residents also exposed them to health risks such as cholera, diarrhea, typhoid, and other related diseases.

The lack of access to potable water also affected education in the communities as school children spent long hours in search of water to prepare themselves for school. In most cases, the children did not return home with water and were not able to go to school or went to school exhausted by the long search and were not able to participate in teaching and learning.

Speaking at a ceremony to hand over the facilities to the communities, the Chief Executive Officer of CLIP, Paul Azeka Asia, stated that the daily struggles members of the communities, particularly women and children, go through in search of water for consumption and other uses necessitated the intervention.

Mr. Azeka said as an organization that has the vision to build healthy, safe, and sustainable communities, providing clean, safe water for rural communities was an agenda it would continue to pursue.

He expressed hopes about the transformation the mechanized boreholes would bring to the lives of the people and their economic activities. He was also hopeful the provision of the facilities would eliminate absenteeism caused by the lack of water to improve education in the communities.

He profusely thanked the donors and the Kassena-Nankana West District Assembly for their immense support towards the initiative.

“What we do at CLIP is to encourage communities to come out with good initiative that can help in the socio-economic development. One of our major intervention is water sanitation and hygiene. And so sometimes, a year ago, communities from this part of our country, precisely the Kassena-Nankana West District, made an appeal to us to come and support them get water interventions in their communities. And when we came round and made an assessment, we observed that the communities here really had difficulties in getting safe drinking water.

Largely, they depend on surface water which has health implications such as diarrhea, cholera, and other water-related diseases. And we also realized that the women and children spent longer hours daily in search of water at far way places which are not even wholesome water sources”.

Aneateba Bertinus Akonsa, the Kassena-Nankana West District Engineer who represented the District Chief Executive, urged the communities to form committees to manage the facilities to ensure their sustainability.

He noted that the absence of such committees would lead to frequent breakdowns of the boreholes and their eventual collapse.

Mr. Aneateba thanked the organization for the intervention and assured them of the Assembly’s involvement in ensuring that the facilities are managed well for the benefit of the people.

Some members of the beneficiary communities in an interview expressed joy in the commissioning of the boreholes and conveyed mouthfuls of appreciation to the Community Legacy Initiative Programme for the intervention.

Wekolamo Joshua, a resident of Katiu-Saa said the challenges he and other community members endure to collect water from wells and other unsafe sources for consumption and other purposes would be a thing of the past.

He added that community members would no longer fall sick from diseases caused by the consumption of unsafe water as the safe drinking water from the borehole would improve their lives.

On the impact the facilities would have on education in the communities, Wekolamo Joshua said it would encourage children to go to school since there will always be water for them to prepare themselves.

Another community member, Jennifer Webakura, stated that the provision of the boreholes would mark the end of diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid which have troubled the communities for a long time due to the consumption of unclean water.

She noted that community members especially women and children would no longer travel long distances or queue up to fetch water from the wells. She continued that women in the communities can now go about their daily commercial activities in the market without needing to rush home or wake up in the early mornings to draw water.

“When we used to drink from the wells, we usually had challenges with frogs, toads, crickets, and other insects which polluted the water. we’ll fetch the water and by the next day, these animals would die or emit some reddish matter in the water which makes it unsafe to drink. We also had the challenge of traveling to far places to search for water which wasn’t an easy thing for we the women and children.

But with the boreholes that have been provided, we now drink safe, clean water. We don’t roam in search of water again and we can go about our work on our farms and market without minding to come home early to fetch water because the water is always flowing,” she rejoiced.