To ensure there is water for domestic use, women and children have to wake up at 3am and walk about an hour and thirty minutes to the river bed to dig the ground and sit till 6am in order to collect water that has accumulated in the dugout.
They then walk another hour and thirty minutes to their homes with the water to prepare meals for the family before preparing the children for school.
The children who finally get to school at 9am sometimes have to be allowed to go home before the closing time of 2pm to help their mothers get water again for the evening’s meals.
That is the story of Kalaahi, a community in the Wa East district of the Upper West region.
The community which is about six hours ride from the district capital Funsi is without any regular source of drinking water.
A visit to the community by Starr News’ Upper West Regional Correspondent Musah Lansah revealed the sorry state in which the residents are living in.
The only way to get water now is to walk three hours in the morning and another three in the evening to the river bed which has dried up following the dry season and this according to them is affecting the education of their children.
Madam Nabancheri who spoke to Starr News disclosed that she sometimes has to wake up at about 2am to make the one hour thirty minutes’ walk to the river bed to dig the ground for her water.
She said, “Sometimes I wake up at 3am to walk here to dig the ground and wait for the water to come out before I fetch. After that I will carry it home to do my household chores and also prepare my children for school.”
She adds that, “it is difficult for us because by the time we get home we get tired and even the water is not clean for us to bath with. Sometimes we look white like we have not bathed.”
Bambaraju Mary, a pupil of the Kalaahi JHS who was also at the river bed to get water told Starr News, “most of the time I get to school around 9am and this is affecting my friends and me. Sometimes when we even bath, we look white like we have not bathed and so we are appealing to the government to give us water.”
Owusu Ansah Emmanuel, a teacher who was posted from Kumawu in the Ashanti region to Kalaahi expressed sadness at the plight of the students.
He said, “The situation here is so bad that we the teachers have decided that even if they (pupils) have water to wash their faces, they should come to school so that we can have them come early for lessons.
Sometimes we have to send a gallon to Wawa where there is a borehole to fetch water for us to use for drinking”.
What is the Care-taker Chief Doing?
Mr. Mahama Santin the care-taker chief of the area who could not watch his people suffer decided to help.
He told Starr News that, “I decided to get in touch with some people at Wawa and Logu to assist us by fetching water in gallons at a fee for us”.
“So they fetch drinking water for us in the mornings at a fee so that we can use it cook and drink as well but we cannot continue like this. We need water in our community too”.
The Broken Borehole
A borehole which was drilled by a philanthropist three years ago has broken down due to the pressure on it from the 500 voter population.
According to the chief, the mechanic working on the borehole is yet to respond to their calls to come repair it.
He said, “The borehole mechanic says he is tired of coming to work on our borehole. We have therefore engaged the services of another mechanic who is yet to come here.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Musah Lansah
