Namong (Ash), March 2, GNA - An acute water shortage has hit the Namong Secondary/Technical School in the Offinso district threatening a possible closure of the school.

Mr Richard Owusu-Mensah, Vice-Chairman of the school's Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) who made this known, said the situation has seriously affected teaching and learning and warned that all the 130 students would be sent home if nothing was done about the situation. Conducting the press round the school to ascertain the situation on Wednesday, he said the students struggle daily to fetch water from the machine drilling a well at Kokote, a distance of about four kilometres before preparing for classes at around 1000 hours. Mr Owusu-Mensah said the only standpipe in the school was not functioning and that persistent appeals to the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to rehabilitate the pipe had fallen on deaf ears. "When the school authorities again contacted the GWCL to provide the school with a new borehole, they could not afford a bill of 65 to 100 million cedis presented to them by the company".

Mr Owusu-Mensah, however, said Nana Serwaa Nyarko, Queen Mother of the Offinso traditional area provided the school with a well drilling machine last year but this has also broken down.

He therefore appealed to the government, the Offinso District Assembly, institutions and well-meaning individuals from the area to assist the school so as to enable the authorities to adequately prepare the final-year students adequately to write their final examinations. In the meantime, the PTA and other stakeholders will hold a crisis meeting on March 28 to decide the fate of the students if the situation persisted.