In February this year we at NewsAfricanGhana wrote about the water crisis that hit Accra West. We have decided to add to the many other blogs talking about water as today 15thOct.2010 marks Blog Action Day2010. For a number of reasons, the issue of water was chosen for this year.
For us here at NewsAfricanGhana, the most significant reason why we have joined the campaign on water this year is the fact that; the United Nations has predicted that; one tenth of global diseases can be eliminated by by improving water supply and sanitation.
Our opinion is that
In the effort to ensure that every global citizen gets access to water, available water resources or the means by which water is distributed must be protected and used judiciously.
At Dansoman, a suburb of Accra; which is supposed to be one of the foremost and well-planned communities in Ghana and probably in West Africa. We chanced upon a broken pipe with clean running water that has been left unattended to for hours. There was no sign of a repair work planned or scheduled. Clean water has been left to go waste in a country that has its fair share of issues related to portable water and accessibility. There has been a lot of talk about water privatisation in Ghana and how it has not even solved the issue of accessibility in many deprived communities.
Under a 5yr management contract, Dutch-owned company, Aqua Vitens Rand Limited , has the mandate to improve its performance and rehabilitate and extend infrastructure of the Ghana Water Company Limited. Yet there is a slow response in fixing broken and burst pipes that should have been properly protected beneath the earth instead of haphazardly showing on the surface and being exposed to car tyres.
What problems and experiences do you have to share about water problems in your community? Do you have unfettered access to water regularly? Please Share with us.
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1 comment:
This is a great post. Subjective, I know, but it's excellent and makes important points. I totally missed blog action day as I was traveling. I had been looking forward to writing something too. Anyway, I came across this and wanted to write. We had a burst pipe for the last two weeks. It was fixed yesterday. Insane. We went to the office responsible several times in the last two weeks but no action was taken until someone close by who knew someone in the office went and reported it yesterday. If that person didn't have connections I wonder if anything would have been done yesterday. The sad part is that we live in an area (Bolga) deprived of water, and women and children carrying water on their heads in buckets had to walk through what became a temporary swamp because of the burst pipe to get from the bore hole to their homes. Why? Maybe because of the Upper East @ 50 celebrations, I don't know. But surely they can do better than that.
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