Dadome, a community in dire need of potable water
Dadome is a rural community in the Central Tongu District of the Volta Region. The community and its adjourning villages have seen an increase in water-related diseases over the past years, resulting in the death of some residents, majority being children. Some community members fear the situation could escalate as residents continue to fetch and use untreated and unwholesome water which they share with cattle and other animals from contaminated river sources in the area.
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The available source of water, a tributary of the Volta River called Aklakpa, has been badly polluted and is known to be the source of many diseases in the village.This has led to the outbreak of waterborne diseases such as schistosomiasis (bilharzia). The water in this river is brownish sludge; literally muddy water, covered by water hyacinths. The other source of water for people in the community is the polluted dam, polluted by the dung of cows because they drink from it as they move through it.
Effect on education
This lack of potable water in the village has impacted negatively on school attendance and performance as pupils have to trek a distance of four kilometres daily to access the main source of water, though polluted.
“Our pupils are always getting sick when they drink this water. The absence of potable water is really affecting academic work. The pupils usually have to travel four kilometres each morning and evening to fetch water. They thus become tired, making teaching and learning very ineffective,” the Headmaster of Dadome D/A Basic School, Mr Mathew Dabah, said.
According to him, apart from the long distance, the quality of water is not good because the decaying water weeds on the river gives off an offensive odour but they have no option but to drink it.
“When the pupils come to school, they complain of stomach problems with others having blood in their urine,” he said.
Salty borehole water
According to Mr Dabah, though the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, recently helped to sink some boreholes in the community, the water from the boreholes could not be used because of the high salt content. As a result, the boreholes have been capped.
In response to appeals from the community leaders, International Needs, a Christain, not-for-profit development organisation, funded by its counterpart in the USA, International Needs, USA responded to the needs of the community by installing a GH¢ 10,000 rain water harvesting system and a reservoir that can store 5,000 gallons of water. However, the long spell of the dry season meant they could not rely on the system for now.
Intervention
International Needs, Ghana, under its medical intervention, also provided free medical care to the people of Dadome and other communities, namely Kpogede, Kanuwloe, Fakpoe, Lasivenu and Anawoekope in the North and Central Tongu Districts of the Volta Region.
Thirty-one professionals, including medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists and paramedics from the USA, were joined by a team of health personnel from the Adidome Hospital to screen and treat over 3,000 persons while patients requiring further attention were referred to the district hospital.
The Director of Development and Co-ordinator of Medical Outreach of International Needs, USA, Mrs Terry Heyward, observed that the lack of clean water in the community was the source of many water-borne diseases in the area.
She said about 70 per cent of the diseases of the people would be prevented if the community was able to access clean water. “Water is life and very essential in the life of an individual,” she said.
Mrs Heyward also said the team had, for the past seven years, worked with its partners in Ghana to provide free medical care and dispense medication to patrons.
Medical support
International Needs, Ghana has since 2003 provided free medical care to over 20,000 people living in rural communities in the Greater Accra and Volta regions.
Its operations began in 1987 and it has so far made major interventions in 21 metropolitan areas, municipalities and districts across five regions of Ghana.
Though the Dadome community expressed appreciation for the medical outreach, their wish was that it would be sustained to address the health needs of the people. But more importantly, as pointed out by Mr Dabah, they are appealing to the government and benevolent organisations to provide them with potable water to stop the community members, especially children, from drinking contaminated water.
Writer's email : benjamin.glover@ graphic.com.gh
