Tamale To Face Another Water Crisis By 2015

An estimated 500,000 people in five Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Northern Region of Ghana, could soon experience erratic supply of potable water to their homes by 2015 due to the inability of the water Treatment Plant at the Dalun Headworks to work beyond its optimum level.

According to Assistant Communications Officer of Ghana Water Company Limited, Nii-Abbey Nicholas, the optimization of the plant capacity at the Dalun Headworks would be due in 2015. 

He said that the last expansion and rehabilitation works at the Dalun Headworks by Messer’s Biwater BV in 2008, were expected to reach their final optimization by 2015 and thus would not be able to pump beyond the required capacity from Nawuni or White Volta River for treatment and consumption by the populace.

The GWCL supply water from its production site at Dalun to almost half-a-million people spread across the Tamale Metropolis, Savelugu-Nanton Municipality, Sagnarigu, Tolon and Kumbungu Districts, with its larger clientele being residents of Tamale.

Currently, the GWCL daily production is about 7 million gallons or 39,000 cubic meters. Even though this figure was expected to increase due to population rise, Nii-Abbey dreaded the 7 million gallons daily production could become insufficient if another water expansion project that was expected to have been under construction by now to increase production levels was further delayed.

He explained that “water supply systems are capital intensive citing for instance the cost of developing a new supply is usually too large to be met from the income received from current consumers, so the money for it has to be borrowed.” Adding, he also said “Reservoirs, dams, treatment works and bulk supply mains, have to be size large enough to cater for future rising water demand. Hence, it is reasonable to borrow money for such works and repay it gradually from rising sales of water.”

Explaining further, Nii-Abbey stressed that “raising the necessary capital is one of the key problems facing governments. If Ghana was rich enough, the government would lend money from its own funds”, he opined. He however added that, “alternatively a water undertaking may be permitted to borrow money directly from the ‘money market’ citing for instance from commercial sources of money; but the amounts so borrowed may have to be controlled to ensure the total ‘public sector borrowing’ does not exceed the government’s need to maintain its own financial stability in the water sector.”   

The acute water shortages and erratic supply that the people of Tamale and its surrounding environs experienced some few years ago, he said, was looming again and it was important for a new project that was still at deliberation stages at governmental level to begin. 

Speaking at a day’s forum in Tamale organized by the Gub-Katimali Society, a non-governmental organization, he appealed to the public to endeavour to honour their responsibilities in the payment of water bills so as to enable the GWCL also honour its obligation through quality and reliable water supply.

The forum was organized as part of the implementation of a three-year project dubbed ““Promoting an Inclusive and Empowered Civil Society to advance Socio-Economic and Political Development in Ghana.”

The forum which brought together civil society organizations, assembly officials, persons with disabilities, persons with mental illness and epilepsy, the media among others, was aimed at soliciting support from key government institutions and departments such as the GWCL and Ghana Health Service in the Tamale Metropolitan and Sagnarigu District Assemblies for the various vulnerable groups in their respective jurisdictions and encourage them to take into consideration the concerns of these groups when drafting their policies and programmes.

Nii-Abbey Nicholas

According to Nii-Abbey, plans were far advanced for the government to build a new conventional Water Treatment Plant on the White Volta River at Yapei in the Central Gonja District in order to supply potable water to inhabitants in that area and its environs.

Yendi, Salaga, Buipe and Damongo Water Supply Rehabilitation and Expansion Projects, he noted, were other plans on government’s drawing board awaiting implementation in the near future.

He also disclosed that the GWCL total debt ratio incurred by private individuals and the government as at May 31, 2011 in Dalun, Yendi and Tamale had amounted to more than GH¢1,000,000.

Meanwhile, the three-year projected by Gub-Katimali Society which begun in 2012 aimed at building an inclusive and empowered civil society well aware of their needs and rights, including existing and contemplated public policies and programmes and increase their debate as well as lobby and advocate in their favour.

It also intended to contribute to increasing awareness and capacities of Community Based Organizations of men and women with mental illness or epilepsy, PWDs, women, youth and farmer groups to influence policy planning and implementation.

Scarce Human Resources Affecting Healthcare Delivery in N/R

Sherry Ayittey, Minister for Health

The 2012 Northern Regional health performance review meeting has been organized in Tamale as shortage of critical health personnel continued to be cited amongst the region’s list of major issues that are likely to derail the few gains made in healthcare delivery in recent years.  

Over the last decade, the region had been one of the few places in Ghana, where many health personnel including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and midwives refused postings to go and work, often citing lack of peace and insecurity as some of the reasons.

Even though quite recently a lot of measures had been put in place to avert some of the major health problems in the area, especially maternal and infant deaths that had put the region ahead of the rest of the country, many targets by the regional health directorate seemed unachievable as some of the problems still exist. 

However, delivering an address on the state of the health sector in the region at this year’s performance review meeting under the theme: “Addressing the challenges of Maternal and Child Health Services –The Role of Quality Health Data”, the Northern Regional Director of Health Service Dr. Akwasi Twumasi, bewailed the low number of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, midwives and laboratory technicians in the area, describing the situation as the region’s biggest issue.

The region currently has over 20 districts and a population more than 1 million, but according to Dr. Twumasi only 24 medical doctors were at post. In addition to this figure, 18 Cuban doctors were also in the region with 8 of them at the University for Development Studies Medical School, 6 at the Tamale Teaching Hospital and 5 with Ghana Health Service.    

Although he admitted that staff strength had increased considerably from 2,748 in 2008 to 4,210 in 2012, the number of health facilities, he noted, had also increased over the years to the current level of 22 hospitals, 415 CHIPS compounds (as compared to 265 in 2008) and 7 polyclinics. Adding that, unfortunately not all districts had hospitals citing for instance Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo, Central Gonja, Nanumba South and Sawla-Tuna-Kalba.

Dr. Akwasi Twumasi

Dr. Twumasi also complained of encroachment of landed properties of the Ghana Health Service by some unscrupulous individuals citing for instance the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Tamale West Hospital, Bole Hospital and Gindabuo Health Centre and appealed for support towards securing those lands.

Incredibly, the total out-patient-department attendance increased from 1,589,509 in 2011 to 1,815,525 in 2012 as the top cause of the OPD attendance was due to malaria which remained almost the same at 46.6 percent for both 2011 and 2012, the regional director mentioned.

He also disclosed that admissions due to malaria decreased from 59.4 percent in 2011 to 43.9 percent in 2012 whereas the deaths due to malaria increased marginally from 18.9 percent in 2011 to 19.1 percent in 2012. This according to Dr. Twumasi could be a reflection of various interventions that were put in place including training and regular monitoring and supervision of malaria case management.

Dr. Twumasi also disclosed that the greatest achievement of the region was the fact that supervised delivery continued to make a steady upward climb for the past five years saying it moved from 61.1 percent in 2011 to 62.7 percent in 2012. Maternal deaths, he stated, had reduced stressing that the figure had moved from 115 in 2011 to 108 in 2012. “Maternal mortality rate has moved from 188 to 130 per 100,000 live births”, he added.

Meanwhile, the Northern Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service appealed to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives to assist his outfit in providing accommodation for staff posted to some of the districts particularly newly created ones.

BasicNeeds Wants New Mental Health Law Implemented Now

Mental health and development advocacy non-governmental organization, BasicNeeds Ghana– has expressed concern over government’s continuous delay towards implementation of the country’s new Mental Health Law (ACT 846). 

 

According to the NGO, delays by the government to print out the ACT passed into law in March last year could further worsen the mental health situation in the country, if steps were not taken to speed up the process.

 

Per standard practice, the mental health law like any other newly passed law should have been in implementation six months after receiving presidential assent, but according to BasicNeeds Ghana, the document was yet to be printed out at the Government’s Assembly Press.

 

As a result, the country’s only psychiatric hospitals including the Accra, Pantang and Ankaful– that served about 25million of the population were saddled with a lot of challenges. For instance, the infrastructures of the three institutions were currently begging for expansion, more facilities and health personnel as well as essential medicines for the treatment of persons with mental illness and epilepsy. 

 

Besides, Northern Ghana did not have a single psychiatric hospital, thus most patients in the area had to travel to any of the three aforementioned hospitals located in the country’s South for comprehensive treatment.

These came to light at a day’s capacity building workshop organized by the NGO for members of the Media for Good Governance (MeGG), a group made up of editors and senior journalists, in the Northern Region. 

 

The aim of the workshop was to bring together MeGG members on a common platform to deliberate on the way forward for mental health and development in Ghana, especially in the Northern Region, in the wake of the new mental health law.

Under the new mental health law, there would be an improvement towards the care of poor, vulnerable people with mental illness or epilepsy, protection of their human rights and promotion of their participation in restoration and recovery. 

The law, which has been hailed by the World Health Organization as one of the best legislations worldwide, also sought to ensure that adequate provision of resources has nine parts consisting of a Mental Health Board, a Service, a Review Tribunal (to review mental cases), Visiting Committee, Voluntary Treatment and Involuntary Treatment. The other parts of the law were the Rights of a Person (human right abuses and discrimination associated with mental health), Protection of the Vulnerable Group and Miscellaneous provisions, among others. 

 

mentally ill person

The Community Project Coordinator of BasicNeeds Adam Dokurugu Yahaya, said the law in the next 5 to 10 years would ensure integrated services in general hospitals across the country, all district hospitals to have 2 to 5 beds in general wards, all regional hospitals to have psychiatric wards with 10 to 20 beds and community volunteers in mental health to be a common place.

Also, he stated that a 40 to 50 bed psychiatric hospital would be built in each region, 4 drug rehab centres established nation-wide and the current 3 psychiatric hospitals in the country downsized and refurbished to state-of-the-art.

The law, according to him, further emphasises a vigorous pursuance of training and recruitment of psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and other staff to render services across the country, provision of hot-line services, crisis intervention and mobile teams, getting rid of mentally ill persons in the streets and provide services without human rights abuse.

Mr. Dokurugu however, said stakeholders in the mental health sector were foreseeing the possible formation of a weak mental health board that would be non-performing, thus affecting cash flow to ensure effective implementation of the components of the law.

Nonetheless, he advocated a strong technical working group behind the scene as a pressure force, highly motivated mental health personnel, vibrant and interested media, active civil society including NGOs as well as an interested international community in order to guarantee success with regards to the implementation of the law.

 

Meanwhile, there are currently 700 psychiatric nurses and 210 community psychiatric nurses in the country when in actual fact Ghana needed 5000 and 3000 personnel for each of the two categories of health professionals, BasicNeeds-Ghana said. Additionally, Ghana currently has only fourteen psychiatrists instead of 150. These, according to Mr. Dokurugu were some of the requirements enshrined in the new law and government and its stakeholders were expected to achieve in the next ten years.

Sagnarigu District Hit With Myriad Of Challenges in Its Health Sector

Alhaji A.B. Fuseini, MP, Sagnarigu

Authourities at the Sanarigu District Assembly in the Northern Region of Ghana say its health facilities were currently saddled with myriad of challenges and dread the situation could get worse if aggressive measures were not put in place to address some of their essential needs.

According to the District Director of Health Service, Mrs. Gertrude Yentumi, some of the major challenges facing the district include lack of technical staff, erratic supply of drugs particularly for mentally ill persons, dilapidated infrastructure, inadequate office furniture and shelves for the storage of drugs and other logistics.

Speaking at a day’s civil society accountability forum organized by Gub-Katimali Society, a non-governmental organization in Tamale, she complained about the lack of vehicular logistics and inadequate qualified physician assistants to complement healthcare delivery as a big challenge to a district with a population of 95,978. “The health directorate has only one pickup, 6 motorbikes and two bicycles to do run errands”, Mrs. Yentumi disclosed.

The forum which was part of the implementation of a three-year project by Gub-Katimali Society dubbed ““Promoting an Inclusive and Empowered Civil Society to advance Socio-Economic and Political Development in Ghana”, brought together civil society organizations, assembly officials, persons with disabilities, persons with mental illness and epilepsy, the media among others.

The forum was aimed at soliciting support from key government institutions and departments such as the Ghana Water Company Limited and Ghana Health Service in the Tamale Metropolis and Sagnarigu District Assembly for various vulnerable groups in their respective areas and encourage officials to take into consideration their concerns when drafting their policies and programmes.

Mrs. Yentumi appealed to the Sagnarigu District Assembly to renovate Malshegu, Taha and Garishegu CHPS Compounds as well as Bagabaga clinic so that congestions at the few health centres could ease.

She also called on the Assembly to register vulnerable groups such as persons with mental illness and epilepsy with the National Health Insurance Scheme, adding that there were many people in the area suffering from different forms of mental illnesses but unfortunately did not have money to seek healthcare.

The Sagnarigu District Director of Health Service also appealed to the Northern Regional Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service to endeavour to post some physician assistants and mental health officers to the district so that they could help solve some of the numerous health problems in the area.

Create Criteria For Disbursement Of PWDs Fund –Govt told

Lack of transparency in the implementation of social protection programmes by some Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Northern Region of Ghana appears to be causing agitation and mistrust among beneficiaries, who are mostly persons with disabilities (PWDs).

For this reason, government has been asked to put in place a criterion for the disbursement of the 2 percent share of the district assembly common fund (DACF) allocated to PWDs since there was no such thing in place, thereby always creating confusion between MMDA officials and the PWDs and vulnerable groups such as mentally ill persons and epileptic patients.

This came to light during series of interface meetings organized in seven MMDAs by Gub-Katimali Society, a non-governmental organization in the Northern Region, as part of the implementation of a three-year project funded by the European Union Commission in Ghana. The MMDAs include East Mamprusi, West Mamprusi, Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo, Nanumba North, Nanumba South, Central Gonja and Tamale. 

The project, dubbed “Promoting an Inclusive and Empowered Civil Society to advance Socio-Economic and Political Development in Ghana” aimed to build an inclusive and empowered civil society well aware of their needs and rights, including existing and contemplated public policies and programmes and increase their debate as well as lobby and advocate in their favour.

It also intended to contribute to increasing awareness and capacities of Community Based Organisations of men and women with mental illness or epilepsy, PWDs, women, youth and farmer groups to influence policy planning and implementation. 

Some of the beneficiaries who spoke during an open forum at one of such meetings in Tamale, complained that the PWDs Fund was managed by a committee put in place by the assembly of which they have a representative, but their representative was not part of the signatories to the bank account opened for the Fund.

They also disclosed that PWDs had no knowledge of how much money was always transferred into their bank account at the end of every quarter and as a result, the lack of transparency here was breeding mistrust between PWDs and assembly officials.

Other participants also bewailed the manner in which assembly officials had succeeded in politicising almost all social protection programmes and development projects being implemented, saying mostly certain programmes intended to benefit them were rather given to other group of people based on political favouritism and not because they deserve to benefit.

On the other hand, MMDA officials complained bitterly about the late transfer of their DACF which negatively affect their planned activities in every quarter, thereby portraying assembly officials as liars to the people particularly those who were entitled to some form of monies allocated to them in the DACF.

Besides, some of the MMDA officials expressed concern about the dishonest nature of some PWD and other vulnerable groups, saying most of them squander their money anyhow on alcohol, mobile phones and other trivial things instead of investing it in income generating activity since the Fund was a revolving one and others were on standby expecting to benefit.  

It also emerged that there was discrimination and stigmatisation among the PWDs as the physically challenged, visually and hearing impaired did not want mentally ill and epileptic persons to benefit from the Fund because they perceived them not to be PWDs.  

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of Gub-Katimali Society, Sheik Yakubu Abdul-Kareem expressed satisfaction about the MMDAs efforts to meet the demands of their people in spite of the difficulties they faced.

He however, wished the PWDs and other vulnerable groups in various MMDAs could cooperate with officials so that they could deliver on their mandate.

A grassroots development organization founded in 1991 to help promote rural development in Northern Ghana, Gub-Katimali Society seeks to sensitise, empower and enable local communities to realize their own development through collective participation, partnership and pooling local resources together for sustainable development.

Gub-Katimali Society currently operates in nine MMDAs in the Northern Region and has since its establishment and with the support of its partners such as Trull Foundation, Charity of Rebecca and Hope for Children, supported over 70 students some of whom have completed tertiary and secondary education. It has also supported children with mental illness to enroll in or go back to school after stabilizing, and provided their parents with small ruminants to rear in order to cater for their children’s education.