Residents in Gil-Nating in Kpalwega electoral area in the Bawku Municipality of the Upper East Region have threatened to boycott the 2020 general elections if they are not provided with portable water.
Gil-Nating, a farming community with a population of more than 800 lacked have access to several social amenities and basic life essentials including safe water.
The residents in the community drink water from a dirty dugout which is only accessed after a trek of many miles. Their livestock also depends on the same source of water.
Modern Ghana News visit to the community revealed that school children and women lose many productive hours in search of water and sometimes boil the water before consumption.
“If you are someone who fears toads you can’t fetch or drink our water. Whenever we put our buckets into the well to fetch, the toads will sneak in and when you are done and carrying it, the toads will pop up and float on top of the water looking at you and you have no choice but to carry it home. And those who are afraid will panic and accidentally drop the water halfway,” a resident laments.
Some of the women in the community who spoke to the news team said the community is in dire need.
Paul Ayaaba, a health worker in Gil-Nating told the news team that, they will boycott the 2020 general elections if nothing done to provide them with potable water, an essential commodity for life.
According to paul, they have been drinking from the hand-dugout well filled toads for over 30 years.
He stressed that several requests have made to the authorities through the area Assemblyman but to no avail.
He indicated that as a health worker, each day passes without they recording cases of diarrhoea, typhoid and cholera in the area.
Lahadi Ayaaba, a native said politicians always come to them on election year to promise but have failed to fulfill a single promise. “If you are someone who fears toads you won’t fetch or drink from our water,” Alahadi Ayaaba said.
Khalifa Iddrisu, a resident also said, under the John Mahama era, a borehole was construction but water failed to gash out leaving it dried up. ” Our issue is that we won’t vote again because we don’t see the use of us voting and they not fulfilling the same promises they keep coming every election year with.”
The Assemblymember of Kpalwega Electoral Area, Agomah A. Elvis called on the Municipal Chief Executive, the Member of Parliament for the area and other spirited individuals to come to their aid.
He lamented that at this 21st century they still have to drink directly from hand-dug wells.
He called on Ghana Water Company Limited to extend its coverage to the electoral area to help alleviate the plight of the people.
Source:Modernghana.com
