Water shortage hits Yendi

The Yendi Municipality in the Northern Region has been hit by water shortage for a week after River Dakar — the main source of water for the area — dried up.

The dire situation has compelled women, men and children to travel long distances on foot, bicycles, motorbikes and tricycles usually carrying yellow gallons in search of water at dams, boreholes and other places.

Currently, a drum of untreated water is sold at GH¢5 by private water tankers to food sellers and private homes.

At the boreholes, a yellow gallon of water is sold at 20 pesewas, while a full water tanker ranges from GH¢150 to GH¢200 depending on the number of gallons the water tanker contains.

Delayed rains

The Yendi District Manager of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Alhaji Adam Sayibu, said River Dakar had dried up because of the delayed onset of this year’s rains, human activities like farming along the river, fishing and population increase in the area.

He said GWCL had arranged for a private water tanker to distribute water to the people, while the company worked to have more tankers in operation to ease the water situation in the area.

The Production Supervisor of GWCL in Yendi, Mr Alhassan Dasana, said the company was now relying on the company’s boreholes, pumping from the boreholes to the headworks to treat the water before the tankers then took the water from the hydrants and supplied to the public.

He said each trip of the water tanker contained 3,500 gallons of water for residents, stressing that currently, they were supplying water to prison inmates, the military, Yendi Senior High School, Dagbon State Technical Senior High School, among others.

Finding solution

The Yendi Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Alhaji Hammed Abubakar Yussuf, accompanied by the Coordinating Director of the Yendi Municipal Assembly, Mr Gaspard Dery; the Engineer of the assembly, Mr Edward Okantah; the Presiding Member of the Assembly, Mr Husein Abdul Karim; and some assembly members, visited the GWCL pump head works to see how best they could find a solution to the problem.

Alhaji Yussuf said a team from the assembly had since met the overlord of Dagbon, Ya Na Abukari II, to discuss the possibility of dredging the intake point at the treatment plant to ensure the continued supply of water throughout the year.

He said the Ya Na tasked the assembly to get an engineer to assess the situation to enable GWCL to fix the challenge as quickly as possible.

Alhaji Yussuf said the water situation in Yendi could be solved permanently when Yendi got connected to River Oti as the water source.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo last year cut the sod for work to start on a water supply system from River Oti for Yendi.

The Yendi MCE said when Yendi connected to River Oti, the River Dakar water source would be connected to just the Mion District to serve the residents.