Nakong,(UE) July 18, GNA - The Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocesan Development Office (NABOCADO) of the Catholic Church has drilled 13 boreholes valued at GHC176,198 for 13 communities in its jurisdiction.

The beneficiary communities are Saboro/ Kawenia in Nakong, Kayoro-Wumbeo, Nayagnia, Mirigu-Nabango-Nyanga, Kandiga-Lemizongo all in the Kassena-Nankana West District, in Upper East Region.

The rest are Jimbale, Soghaam, Kufuk, Gingbane, Tambok and Kinkangu also in Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo District, in the Northern Region.

Commissioning the facility at the weekend at Nakong, in the Kassena-Nankana District, the Administrator of the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese, Monsignor Thomas Anamooh, said the Catholic Church was following the foot steps of Jesus Christ by attending to the social needs of the people.

According to him, people could not assimilate the word of God on empty stomachs and so the Church could only effectively win more souls for the Church when it gave critical attention to the needs of the people, especially the poor.

Msgr. Anamooh indicated that, it was based on this conviction that the Church decided to provide the boreholes to the communities to provide potable water for them because it was one of their pressing needs.

He said the facility was made possible through the support of a Dutch donor partner called SIMAVI and commended the organization for their support towards the provision of the facility.

He entreated the beneficiaries to take good care of the boreholes by ensuring that they were periodically maintained to pro-long their lifespan.

The Acting Coordinator of NABOCADO, Mr. Joseph Ayembilla, said his outfit through its Rural Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Project, (RUWASH) sought to provide potable water for the deprived communities that were hit by chronic shortage of water and had to travel long distances to get good water.

He said his outfit had formed hygiene volunteers and provided capacity building on hygiene issues for them and also organised pumping maintenance committee to maintain the pumps on regular basis.

He challenged District Assemblies to provide sanitary facilities for the communities since they were facing serious problems with sanitation forcing a lot of people to defecate in the open.

The Chief of Saboro/ Kawenia, Pe Kojankolo Goyugu, who thanked the Catholic Church for the facility, explained that for the past 30 years the community had had no source of drinking water and had depended on streams which dry up early in the dry season forcing women to travel far for water.

The Chief, however, appealed to the District Assembly and the Catholic Church to provide a school building for the area to enable the children to have education as they had to commute about four kilometres to attend school.

The District Chief Executive for the Kassena-Nanakana West, Mr Thomas Dalu, commended the Catholic Church for the facility and said it would help reduce the burden of the Assembly.

He assured the provider that the Assembly would do everything possible to support and maintain the boreholes and that it would mechanise some of them to help the people to go into dry season farming.