World Vision Ghana has trained residents in seven communities in the Northern and Upper East regions on water purification processes to help end the consumption of unwholesome water.
The beneficiary districts include Gushiegu, Karaga, Nanton, Mamprugu, Moagdui and the Savelugu municipalities in the Northern Region.
The others are the Bawku West and Garu Tempane municipalities in the Upper East Region.
The training, which took place in some selected schools in the communities, was on the back of some 400 boreholes in the communities contaminated after being submerged as a result of the Bagre Dam spillage.
Also, the torrential rains in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions have lately caused floods and destroyed many farmlands, houses, roads and other infrastructure.
Boreholes & dug outs
Boreholes and dug outs are the main sources of drinking water for most communities in the two regions; hence the need to provide an interim solution to end the continuous drinking of contaminated water to avoid the contraction of waterborne diseases such as guinea worm, diarrhoea, and river blindness.
The Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs and Security Manager for World Vision Ghana, Samuel Gmalu, observed: “There is the need to ensure residents especially children and women get access to potable drinking water to avoid waterborne diseases such as guinea worm and diarrhoea”.
Affected residents have been given WASH logistic, including filtration buckets, sieving meshes, water harvesting cans, water purifiers and soaps to enable residents to purify water drawn from the boreholes and dug outs before consumption.
Alhassan Small, a resident, was stricken with shock after he witnessed the purification process demonstrated by officials from the National Disaster Management Organization (Nadmo).
He could not hide his surprise.
“I am shocked after seeing that what we have been drinking all these years is filth and not water,” he said.
He vowed to take up the responsibility of educating residents who missed the demonstration.
“I know people might think purifying water is a woman’s job, but I will take up that role in my house and also take up the duty of educating those that missed the demonstration,” he noted.
Meanwhile, World Vision Ghana has begun steps to treat the about 200 contaminated boreholes in the seven communities.
The two initiatives are being undertaken in collaboration with UNICEF Ghana. The two nonprofit organizations have split the affected areas into two zones with World Vision in charge of seven affected communities in the two regions.
A total of 1,741 storage containers, 1,741 filtration cans, 1,741 sieving meshes, 577,490 P&G purification tablets, and 4,294 cakes of bathing soap were distributed to the communities.
By Zubaida Ismail|3news.com|Ghana