Correspondence from Eastern Region

Residents of Otrokper community near Asesewa in the Upper Manya Krobo District of the Eastern Region, have appealed to the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), the District Assembly and organisations to help solve the water crisis in the community.

According to them, their only source of water for domestic purposes is a well, as two boreholes in the community have broken down.

Though residents of the Otrokper community told GhanaWeb in an interview that they were aware of the health risk associated with drinking from the pond, they had no option.

They added that just one well serving the community is not enough especially during the dry season due to the excessive pressure on it.

GhanaWeb visited the only well in the community and met some of the residents fetching from it.

Though a large volume of water sat in the well at the time of the visit, the residents said this was only temporal as sooner than later, it would all dry up and they would have no option but to queue to fetch from it.

Mavis Teye was one of the women we met at the well. As she explained, she together with her three children depended on the contents of the only well for all their domestic activities.

“This is the water we use over here and use for all domestic activities such as for washing, bathing drinking and everything else,” she said. “When it runs out, we have to eke it out by queuing at odd hours and it becomes a problem.”

To solve the problem, Mavis appealed to the Upper Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly and other benevolent individuals and organisations to provide them with additional sources of water.

GhanaWeb also met an octogenarian, Awo Dede fetching from the well. The over eighty-year-old woman said past generations have had to depend on this particular well for all purposes.

“We were all born to meet this well which our parents depended on and we’re also drinking from it.

When the harmattan comes, we all start eking it out and we don’t even get it. We need additional sources and authorities must come on board and do this for us,” she said.

Assemblyman for Otrokper, Joshua Teye Padi when contacted confirmed the plight of the residents.

He, however, explained that though there were additional wells in the community, they were no longer functional, forcing the residents to wholly depend on the only well.
“We have two boreholes that have broken down,” said the Assembly Man. “That water is of good quality and the only one that we all depend on but as the residents said, there comes a time when there is too much pressure on it, it is unable to support them. We need assistance for more.”

He, therefore, joined the residents to launch an appeal for more sources of potable water for the community.