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The search for potable water at Kpling …residents want quick intervention
• It’s common to see young girls carry water gallons on bicycle
Ashma and friends are among dozens of girls who skip school every morning to get water for their household chores.
In many rural areas in Northern Ghana, women and children especially girls walk for hours with pans to get water from streams and dams. It is common to see residents carry their water containers on bicycle.
Access to clean water is quite a luxury for many of these rural dwellers who will sacrifices, even their school hours in order to get water.
In Kpling community, in the Wulensi South District in the Northern Region, community members get their drinking and household water from a nearby river.
Agnes, a mother said, reliable access to clean, safe water was a basic human right, but they were yet to experience it.
She lamented how difficult it was to get access to water during the dry season.
“As you can see, our children are bathing at the other side of the river while we wash our cloths here and others fetch from the others for household chores.
“This situation isn’t safe for us, but we have no choice than to use this source of water for drinking and home chores. Our children regularly have skin rashes and other waterborne related diseases
“We are pleading with the government and organisations to come to our aid by providing us at least drinking water,” she said.
From Geoffrey Buta, Kpling