As the world marks Water Day today, March 22, the people of Nintin and Hwidiem, a twin farming community in the Asante Mampong Municipality, are struggling unendingly to get potable water for their daily household use.
The perennial water scarcity in the two farming communities, located on the Kumasi-Ejura Highway of the Ashanti Region, is becoming a huge socio-economic burden for the people.
These communities are noted for the sale of organic fruits such as bananas, pawpaw and avocado.
The situation, according to Mr Nicholas Osei-Owusu, the Assemblyman for the area, has affected basic school attendance and the health of the people.
The most affected are school children and women who trek deep into the valley of the Mampong scarp to collect water flowing from the rocks and forming small dams on the rock surfaces.
A visit to the community by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) showed that aside the women and children walking far distances to search for water, healthy living, sanitation and hygiene in the two com
munities have become a challenge as most of the residents resort to open defecation.
The yellow gallons, popularly referred to as ‘Kufuor gallons’ are the esteemed household assets in the towns since they are the most sought after and popular water fetching articles.
Commercial tricycle riders, who travel to Bosofour, near Mampong to fetch water, charge GHc 2.00 per gallon.
The situation, Mr Osei-Owusu noted, was not only affecting the financial situation of the people, who are peasant farmers, but also eroding their meagre incomes.
He told the GNA that several efforts to sink boreholes at various locations in the communities had proved futile due to the hard rocks beneath the ground.
With a total population of approximately 5,000 residents, the two communities have endured this situation for many years and with the impact of climate change, the challenge was becoming more unbearable since the water from the rocks was also depleting.
‘School attendance, household incomes and social life are being worst
affected daily, and urgent attention is needed to save the situation,’ Mr Osei-Owusu said.
He appealed to the Government, foreign missions and non- governmental organisations in Ghana to go to their aid in finding lasting solutions to the communities’ predicament.
Source: Ghana News Agency