Angry chiefs and residents of Djerkiti, a rural community in the Lower Manya-Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region, have expressed their anger at the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government over its inability to honour its promises of providing them with portable drinking water after the breakdown of their borehole a few years ago.
According to the chiefs and residents, they are not animals to drink from gutters.
“We have been forced to rely on a small hand-dug pond which is always muddy, contaminated and dehumanizing and poses a serious health threat to us,” he said.
The chief, Nene Moses Tetteh Padi, said all appeals made to government through the municipal assembly and other political heads of the municipality to honour their promise to construct at least a borehole or well for them have all fallen on deaf ears.
Chief of the village, Dadematse Moses Tetteh Padi, made the disclosure during a community durbar which was organized last Sunday to welcome Kloma Hengme Association, the Krobo advocacy and heritage association, which visited the village to embark on a number of developmental activities.
Dadematse Moses Tetteh Padi, in the company of his elders, took the leadership of the association round to inspect their source of drinking water.
Dadematse Moses Tetteh Padi told the media that their continuous reliance on the unhygienic drinking water often results in frequent outbreak of cholera, strange skin rashes, dysentery and other water-borne diseases in the village.
The angry chief, who was flanked by his elders, said teachers who have been posted to the area have refused to come to area due the unhygienic water, adding that the few who eventually accept the postings rely on bags of sachet water 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 bought from Odumase or Otrokper for cooking and drinking purposes. Most of our classrooms are without teachers. Our school-children are the worst affected here.”
The chief, on behalf of his elders and people, therefore reminded government of its pledges to them. “The NDC deceived us to vote for them, thereafter they have abandoned us, we are warning them not to step here to campaign because they can’t provide us common water to drink.”
He also appealed to all corporate bodies, agencies and philanthropists to provide them with portable water.
Chairman of the Kloma Hengme Association, Isaac Tamatey Otu, on his part, said that the Krobo region hosts two important water treatment plants at Kpong and Bukunor, but treated water is scarce in Krobo land.
”It still beats the imagination of many of us that the Krobo enclave hosts water treatments plants at Kpong and Bukunor and are served to the people of Accra, Koforidua, Nsawam and other places and we are dying out of thirst here. Something is definitely wrong somewhere”.
”I am therefore joining the people of the Djerkiti community to call on government to, as a matter of urgency, come to the aid of our people in Djerkiti here since they also deserve a part of the national cake, and I am also appealing to all NGOs and corporate bodies to also come to the aid of our people,” he added.
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