Several communities across Ghana are facing continuing water shortages in a situation that could become far worse if something is not done about it soon.
Residents in the Western, Central, Brong Ahafo and Northern regions are left with the option either becoming dehydrated and ill or walking very far in order to collect sufficient water for their family’s daily use from nearby rivers. Unfortunately, the water in those rivers is not hygienic, and many are getting ill from water-related diseases. The other problem is that those rivers are also drying up rapidly.
Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has attributed the shortage to a combination of drought and the destructive human activities of illegal miners.
A week ago the GWCL was forced to down its plant in Sunyani in Brong Ahafo Region when the Tano River dried up for the first time in more than 40 years. School children, restaurant operators and informal traders were the worst hit by the enforced shutdown.
Joy News Regional Correspondents reported that there is a massive danger of even worse conditions if authorities fail to act swiftly. Central Regional Correspondent, Richard Kojo Nyarko reported that residents in the suburb of Abura on the Cape Coast have been without water for more than three weeks already and the situation is dire. Initially the water came on and off, dependent on the erratic nature of power supply, but now there simply just is no water for residents.
Regional correspondent Hashmin Mohammed reports that the situation in the Northern Region is far more complex and the GWCL has been unable to preserve sufficient water for distribution due to technical challenges. In Yendi, residents will soon have to drink contaminated water because the Dakar river, which supplements the water produced by the GWCL, is rapidly drying up.
The situation in the Western Regional capital Sekondi-Takoradi is also dire due to the Bosomase River also drying up.
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