Gbulahigu Community in Tolon District Provided with Potable Water

Gifty Baka, C'try Dir. CCFC, Ghana

Access to clean and safe drinking water is no longer a luxury for the Chiefs and people of Gbulahigu, a farming community in the Tolon District of the Northern Region, as they now move to a new era of change with the provision of three new boreholes with hand-pumps. 

For close to forty years now, the people have damned the consequences and are relying on “unsafe dam water” meant for agricultural purposes for their survival.

Gbulahigu is one of the deprived communities in the deprived Tolon District with most of the inhabitants engaged in farming activities. It has human population of over 4,800. But in spite of its proximity to the Northern Regional capital, Tamale, the Gbulahigu community lacks several basic amenities which therefore make live quite unbearable for the people. 

Access to potable drinking water has by far been one of the major challenges facing the people. Since 1972, the Chiefs and people of the community are relying solely on the Bolinga irrigation dam which was constructed by the Acheampong’s government for agricultural purposes. The Dam is also about seven (7) to eight (8) kilometers away from the Gbulahigu community.

Women and children of the community therefore trek that far distance to fetch water from the dam. The colour of the water in the dam clearly explains how insalubrious or unhealthy it is for human consumption. Cattle, sheep, goats and dogs also depend on the same water source. Washing with the water from the dam, according to the Assemblyman for Gbulahigu Electoral Area, Hon Michael Baba Issah changes the colour of the dress.

Hygienically, the water is supposed to be boiled or well treated before using it even for washing but the people especially farmers and children directly drink from the dam.

This reporter met some of the women and children drinking from the dam whiles cattle were also drinking from other side. Some of the community members who were met fetching and drinking directly from the dam, including Madam Amina Abdul-Rahman (lactating mother), Ibrahim Adam (a farmer), Natongmah Zakaria (a farmer) and one Zaratu Yussif (kulikuli seller) in separate interviews told Savannahnews about how the water over the years had affected most the people especially women and children in the community. 

The Senior Staff Nurse at the Gbulahigu CHPS Compound, John Kuunang in an interview with this paper said that the water had caused several health implications to the people especially during raining season where the Dam began to collect waste water and other materials including human and animal faeces into it. 

According to him, most of the cases reported at the health centre are diarrhea, cholera, respiratory tract and malaria. 

 

Mrs Gifty Baka (right), the Country Director of CCFC, assisting the Nindoo Wumbee (in hat), the Chief of Gbulahagu, to cut the tape to inaugurate the water facility. - See more at: http://graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/28762-ngo-donates-boreholes-solar-system-to-gbulahagu.html#sthash.jvmtA8Kd.dpuf

Mrs Gifty Baka (right), the Country Director of CCFC, assisting the Nindoo Wumbee (in hat), the Chief of Gbulahagu, to cut the tape to inaugurate the water facility. - See more at: http://graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/28762-ngo-donates-boreholes-solar-system-to-gbulahagu.html#sthash.jvmtA8Kd.dpuf

Mrs Gifty Baka (right), the Country Director of CCFC, assisting the Nindoo Wumbee (in hat), the Chief of Gbulahagu, to cut the tape to inaugurate the water facility. - See more at: http://graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/28762-ngo-donates-boreholes-solar-system-to-gbulahagu.html#sthash.jvmtA8Kd.dpuf

Mrs Gifty Baka (right), the Country Director of CCFC, assisting the Nindoo Wumbee (in hat), the Chief of Gbulahagu, to cut the tape to inaugurate the water facility. - See more at: http://graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/28762-ngo-donates-boreholes-solar-system-to-gbulahagu.html#sthash.jvmtA8Kd.dpuf

Commendably however, the Tahima Baptist Child Development Programme (TBCDP) with funding from the Christian Children Fund of Canada (CCFC) has constructed three hand-pumping boreholes for the Gbulahigu community. 

The project is to prevent the people especially women and children from drinking from the unsafe dam and also prevent the contraction of diarrhea, cholera and other water born diseases. 

At a durbar to commission the project, Rev. Thomas Imoro Shaibu, Programme Leader of Tahima Baptist Child Development Progrmme said that the purpose of providing the boreholes was to assist the people to at least get access to drinking water to save them from all manner of diseases. 

He said that the health and development of children was the main priority of the TBCDP, hence the provision of the water facilities.

Rev. Shaibu observed that the water provision would also assist the health centre to also operate effectively. 

Tahima Baptist Child Development Progrmme also donated solar panels and two vaccine fridges to the Gbulahigu CHPS compound to enable the personnel operate at night.

Commissioning the project, the Country Director of CCFC, Madam Gifty Baka said that the long absence of clean water for drinking, bathing and cooking had affected the well-being of both children and adults in the community.

According to her, “water is life and a right for every citizen of Ghana”. She noted that the CCFC’s involvement in the provision of the projects was influenced by the difficulties children in the community were going through every morning to trek afar to fetch water before going to school.

Madam Baka further noted that, her visit to the Gbulahigu community revealed not only the health problems but also how the children of the community especially the girl child suffered to get water each morning and got to school very late and tired. 

“Everything CCFC is doing is for the sake of the children. We want our children to be healthy, stay alive and become responsible adults in future”. That is why we did not only provide the water facilities but went further to support the health centre and also providing education facility to support the community. CCFC is also providing sponsorship for some needy children in the community to have access to education”.

She unveiled plans of CCFC and the Tahima Baptist Child Development Project to mechanise the boreholes and also provide three classroom block to reduce the congestion at the school in the community.