Residents of Djerkiti, a rural community in the Lower Manya-Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region, are seething with anger over the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government’s failure to fulfil its promise of providing them with potable water, Today has gathered.
The government’s promise, according to the residents, was as the result of the breakdown of the only borehole in the community for years now.
That situation, they said, has now compelled them to rely on a small hand-dug pond as their only source of drinking water which is not only muddy all the time, but contaminated and dehumanising as well.
Apart from that, the residents also said, the situation poses serious health risks to their lives.
According to the chief and opinion leaders of the area, all their appeals to government through the Assembly and other political heads of the municipality to, at least construct, a single borehole or a well for them, have yielded no results.
This was revealed by the Chief of Djerkiti, Dadematse Moses Tetteh Padi, during a community durbar last Sunday, May 22, 2016, to welcome Kloma Hengme, the Krobo Advocacy and Heritage Association (KAHA).
The Kloma Hengme was in the community to embark on a number of developmental projects including water.
The chief noted that their continuous reliance on the unhygienic source of drinking water often was the result of the frequent outbreak of cholera, strange skin rashes, dysentery and other water-borne diseases in the village.
He further noted that the unsafe water source often discourages teachers who are posted to the area, adding that even the few who eventually honour their postings rely on bags of water sachets for cooking and drinking.
“Now teachers do not accept postings here. When they come and see our water source, they run away. Only a few of them [teachers] are here, but they bring water sachets they buy from Odumase or Otrokper for cooking and drinking purposes. Most of our classrooms are empty without teachers. Our school children are suffering for no fault of theirs,” he lamented.
The chief seized the opportunity to remind President John Dramani Mahama of their incessant appeals to him to redeem his promise to them.
He further extended his appeal to all corporate bodies, agencies and philanthropists to come to the aid of the community by providing them with a safe source of drinking water.
For his part, Chairman of the Kloma Hengme Association, Isaac Tamatey Otu, lamented the fact that though the two important water treatment plants were situated in Krobo community—Kpong and Bukunor) “we do not have water to drink.”
“It still beats the imagination of many of us that Krobo is surrounded by water treatment plants which serve people in the Greater Accra Region, Koforidua, Nsawam and other places but we are dying of thirst,” he stressed.
<<Print>>