- Advertisement -

Lack of water supply hampers healthcare delivery at Sokabisi health center

- Advertisement -

The Sokabisi health center in the Bolgatanga municipality was built to provide safe health services to the people of Sokabisi-Zorbisi-Tanzui electoral area as well as neighboring communities.

The center handles cases such as antenatal, postnatal, family planning services among others. However, the lack of water supply to the center is affecting health delivery.

A borehole serving the community was mechanized to provide accessible and safe drinking water to the community and the Sokabisi health center. Unfortunately, the mechanized system broke down closed to two years now thereby disconnecting the health center from direct source of water.

Malfunctioning water tap of the health center

In a desperate attempt, members of the community disconnected the mechanized system to enable them have access to water through a borehole supply system.

The situation there has pressured families of pregnant women in labour to report to the center with gallons of water before their laboring relatives are attended to.

“They have asked me on several occasions to buy them water because they don’t have water” a community member, Atanga recounts his ordeal.

The lack of water supply to the facility according to workers is hampering healthcare delivery.

According to them, their lives are in danger as they risk getting infections in the process of serving their clients without water.

“When we attend to patients we need water to wash our hands and here is the case there is no water. So we are at risk of getting infections. Patients can also get infection from one another” one of the nurses bemoaned.

Another nurse stated that pregnant women who reports at the health center are denied a particular medicine because “we don’t have water for them [pregnant women] to take it and they are not supposed to take it home” The staff also says joining long queues with the community people to fetch water on daily basis creates misunderstanding between them and the community members.

The acute water supply at the Sokabisi health center also affects janitorial services. A cleaner, Janet Akolbire said “there is no water for me to clean here and you can imagine how the situation looks like anytime a woman delivers” Community members say they are disappointed in politicians who promised but failed to fix the water challenge in the area.

Disconnect mechanised water system

“We are suffering here and there was a time we decided to ban politicians from entering into our community to campaign because they have deceived us a lot in many ways.”

The present lack of water at the facility does not only pose threats of infections to nurses but also patients as they are exposed to the environment.

Until stakeholders consider addressing the issue, its consequence is a threat to the country’s pursuit in providing good health and well-being to citizens in order to attain goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

By: Joshua Asaah|A1radioonline.com|Ghana


- Advertisement -

MOST POPULAR

- Advertisement -

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related news

- Advertisement -