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Water crisis in Dandafuri: Men struggle to find wives
● One of the non-functioning boreholes
Some men in Dandafuri, a township in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region are in a state of unhappiness over their inability to woo and marry women outside their community due to the water crisis in the town.
The community has five boreholes but none of them is functional and women have to travel a long distance to the next community to get water for the home.
This, according to the men the Spectator spoke to, ‘scare’ away prospective wives from other communities who rejects their marriage proposals with the inadequate supply of water as a reason.
“We’re in a difficult situation because of our water problem. When we propose to women outside the community, they refuses outright and would remark that ‘Dandafuri? No way; I cannot come and struggle for water everyday”, Mr Adamu Mahama, a community member told The Spectator newspaper during a community visit.
The Spectator observed that five nonfunctional boreholes were drilled by politicians without due consultation with the community, hence they were sited at areas with low water volumes, making it difficult to access water.
According to the Unit Committee Chairman of the community, Mr Sumaila Idris, most of the boreholes were drilled during the rainy season so much consultation was not done to get a good place to situate them.
He explained that one of the boreholes was even connected to solar but had not been functional in the last five years.
According to Madam Sadia, a woman in the community, they had to endure hours in queues at the only functioning borehole which had also broken down recently due to the pressure on it.
“We have the boreholes but you can pump forever and no water will come out; they are like white elephants because they are not serving their purpose so we mostly depend on rainwater during the rainy season.”
She said”: “even with the functioning one that has broken down, we sometimes go to the pump at 6am and return to the house at 10am.”
This situation, she said, was affecting their wards’ education especially females and younger children because the mothers and the older girls mostly went water hunting and return home late.
“By the time they go to school, it will be quite late because we come home late to prepare the smaller ones for school and the older females also help us to find water before they go to school”, she lamented and said the rainy season had been generous to them and lessoned their burden.
Even at the school, she explained that the absence of water affected good hygiene practices, such that hand washing was a thing of the past because there was no water for that.
The Chief of the community, Abdul Salam Issahaku sent an appeal to benevolent bodies to come and assist the community to fix the existing boreholes by drilling to the water table and become useful for the community.
From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Dandafuri
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Swedru All Blacks back to winning ways, Roshan humble King Faisal
Sekondi Rospak FC made it eight wins in eight successive home games after three second-half goals from John Amoah, Joseph Ntow and Stephen Anthony Kofi. John Amoah opened the scoring in the 55th minute after a barren first half. Joseph Ntow added to the tally in the 56th minute before Stephen Anthony Kofi rounded things up in the 74th minute to give Rospak a 3-0 win over former Premier League side King Faisal.
Elsewhere at Swedru – leaders Swedru All Blacks humbled PAC Academy in an emphatic 2-0 win. Zayat Bubakari scored first for Swedru All Blacks in the 27th minute before Rudolf Junior Nana Kwasi Mensah made it 2-0 in the 34th minute. Swedru All Blacks are top of the table with 36 points – 4 points ahead of second placed Rospak FC.
Meanwhile, Former Premier League side Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs recorded their fourth successive home victory after beaten New Edubiase United 2-1 at the Robert Mensah Park. Enoch Odoom struck first for Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs in the 19th minute but Steven Asante equalized for New Edubiase United before halftime. After the interval, Godfred Eshun scored from distance in the 65th minute to help Cape Coast Mysterious Dwarfs secure all the points.
Here are the results in Zone Two
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Cervical Cancer alert: Avoid sex at early age
The Programmes Manager of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Mary Efua Commeh, has advised young girls to avoid sex at an early age.
This, she explained, will give the cervix the opportunity to mature before they become sexually active.
“You need to delay what we call the first sexual intercourse as much as possible to give the cervix the opportunity to mature before the person becomes sexually active,” she said.
Dr Commeh stated this in an interview with The Spectator in Accra on Tuesday as a part of the Cervical Cancer awareness month.
According to her, cervical cancer was the second leading female cancer in Ghana with a total of about 3,072 cases annually, and out of that, 1,815 deaths are recorded, representing more than 50 per cent.
She indicated that “If young girls are going to be sexually active, then you need to talk to your parents about being vaccinated.”
She explained that vaccinating young girls against human papillomavirus (HPV) has been found to be a very effective way of preventing cervical cancer.
“There are countries that started HPV vaccination years ago and they are not seeing any cervical cancers now because they would have eliminated most of the high-risk HPVs in their women. So if the high-risk HPV is not there, then obviously the results on cervical cancers are going to go down,” she added.
Dr Commmey said the HPV vaccination is recommended for young girls aged nine to 14 years, adding that it had been found to be highly effective, not just for cervical cancers but for other HPV-related cancers, such as anal cancers, cancers of the vagina, genital warts, amongst others.
She further elaborated that the idea is to put up a barrier before the HPV comes in and that once a young female encounters it, she is already protected.
She also mentioned that for cervical cancers, the main cause is called HPV infection, saying generally, all sexually active women acquire HPV at some point in their lives.
However, the Programmes Manager of NCDs at the GHS mentioned that the body has a way of clearing the HPV, explaining that it is a natural mechanism that goes on, unfortunately, there are a few women whose HPV persists.
Moreover, she noted that the numbers for Cervical Cancer tend to be much higher because at times, clients would wait, and try all sorts of medications before they finally report to the health facility saying “we actually lose some women before they get to the hospitals with over 75 per cent of the cases coming in its third and fourth stages.”
Dr Commey, therefore, called for public awareness while ensuring the availability of information for prevention and control.
By Jemima Esinam Kuatsinu
