The perennial water crisis in the Yendi municipality in the northern region is adversely affecting businesses and economic activities of residents. The people now use productive hours in search of water for domestic chores, making it difficult for businesses to thrive in recent weeks.
The major source of water supply to the municipality, the river Dakar, has virtually dried up due to human activities around the boundaries and the long drought in the north during this period has made the situation very severe for the people to bear.
Abdulai Mahamuda, a resident and trader in the Yendi municipality said they spend so much to buy water nowadays from commercial tricycle operators who fetch dam water from Malzeli, a suburb of Yendi and other communities for sale.
THE CUSTODIAN has learnt the dam water is too muddy for human consumption because it is the same source animals compete for water.
He said even with money it is sometimes difficult to get water to buy and people have to trek several hours before they can get water.
He added there is no fix price for a gallon or drum of water in the area, however, distance is the determining factor for the price.
Adiza Yakubu, a trader selling fruits in the municipality complained how the crisis is affecting her business, adding there is so much difficulty in getting water for household activities and for commercial purpose is greatly affecting her and she no longer make profit with the little sales.
According to her, sometimes it can take a day or two before she can get water to buy attributing it to the high demand for water in the area.
“Water is everything and without water you cannot anything. So it affects my affects my business because going to fetch takes much the time, when people come to buy and you’re not there, they go away and loss customers” she explained.
The Regional Chief Manager of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Ing Amidu Musah in an interview told THE CUSTODIAN the situation has become dire because the river Dakar has dried up.
He observed the human activities around the boundaries is forcing silt into the river but lamented the locals are adamant to adhere to advice to seize those activities, causing this perennial water crisis.
However, Ing Amidu indicated plans are underway to desilt the river to create more space in order to store more water during the forthcoming raining season.
“What we have done is to drill some standby boreholes, so that anytime this river dries up, then we take water from the boreholes and supply the communities through tanker services. We also reserve one of the tankers to serve the schools, hospital, prisons, police and other institutions”
The current generation capacity of the Ghana Water Company Limited in Yendi is about 30 percent of the water demand in the area.
However, the average water demand in a day is about 15 million gallons daily but the GWCL is doing less than 5million gallons in a day.
Therefore, the supply is woeful inadequate to meet the water demand of about 72, 000 inhabitants in the largest village in West Africa.
Ghana as a member state of the United Nations is expected to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all citizens by 2030 as captured in goal 6 of the UN sustainable development goals.
Meanwhile, information available to THE CUSTODIAN indicates that the actual construction of the $30 million dollar Yendi water project will begin this year.
Mr. Amidu disclosed the river Oti will be connected to supply water to the Yendi municipality and its adjoining communities.
