Residents at Kpachiri in the Krachi East Municipality of the Oti Region, have been hit with an acute water shortage, compelling them to compete with animals for water from a nearby dam.
The community and its environs, which have a total population of about 1,000 people, have been battling with the situation for the past months, leading them to resort to untreated water for domestic and commercial activities.
Two boreholes, which served the community had broken down, making the water situation bad.
The dam serves as the only source of water for animals in the area, who urinate and defaecate in it, exposing the residents to water-borne diseases.
A visit to the community by the Ghana News Agency (GNA), revealed that the water had become brownish and muddier as a result of increased activities, which made it more difficult to treat before use.
Madam Asana Ndakeba and other women were sighted standing in the dam fetching water as it does not have any spot specifically reserved for the people to fetch water fr
om without stepping into it.
Others told GNA that they had been drinking the untreated water for the past months because they have no means of treating it.
‘ Apart from the struggle we go through every day to get the water from the dam, it is not safe for consumption, but we don’t have the means to treat the water.’
Mr Rockson Denteh, the Assembly member of the area, expressed fear that the dam was likely to dry up in the coming days due to the severity of the harmattan, which would make life unbearable for them.
He appealed to the Government and Non-governmental Organisations to come to the aid of the affected community by providing them with potable drinking water to relieve the people from the distress they were currently encountering.
Source: Ghana News Agency