Six Senior High Schools (SHSs) in the Tamale Metropolis are the hardest-hit by acute water shortage that has engulfed the metropolis for some time now, The Ghanaian Times has gathered.
The situation, which has persisted for a number of years, has now worsened, compelling students of the affected schools to search for water off campus on daily basis.
This has become disruptive to smooth teaching and learning at Tamale Islamic SHS, Tamale Girls SHS, Ghana SHS, Kalpohini SHS, Dabokpa Technical Institute and Vitting Secondary Technical School.
muddy water from a dam
It has become common to sight students in several parts of the metropolis with their “Yellow Yellow” plastic jerrycans mostly tied to their waists combing for water.
The Ghanaian Times gathered that most of the students trek long distances, especially in the busy hours of the day, just to see if they could get water from nearby streams and dams.
The Headmaster of Vitting SHS, Mr Abukari Ahmed, disclosed that apart from disrupting the studies of the students, the situation also put their lives at risk as they had to cross major roads amid heavy traffic on daily basis in search of water.
He said despite several complaints to the Ghana Water Limited (GWL), very little had been done to resolve the problem.
Mr Ahmed said the GWL was recently informed of their plight, but were directed to get coupons for tankers of the GWL to supply them with water.
However, it turned out that acquiring the coupon was easy but to get a tanker to supply the water was a headache.
He stated that they had tried several times to drill boreholes in the school but getting access to ground water there was difficult.
Mr Ahmed, therefore, appealed to the Minister of Education, who is also the Member of Parliament for the area, to come to their aid by providing the school with a water tanker to ameliorate their suffering.
The Headmaster of Ghana Senior High School, Mr Douglas Haruna Yakubu, corroborated the water shortage complaint, saying his school began experiencing the shortage about two months ago.
According to him, the entire Tamale Metropolis was going through the water crisis for which the Regional Minister had made a statement.
Miss Samata Haruna, a student of Vitting Secondary Technical School, told The Ghanaian Times most of her mates woke up as early as 2:00 a.m. on daily basis to go search for water.
She said their situation had worsened as the only nearby dam (Kukuo Dam) they relied on for water had dried up.
“Since I came to the school, I have never seen the taps flowing before. We sometimes miss classes due to the long hours we spend in search of water,” she said.
For his part, Abdul Salam Ibrahim, a student of Dabokpa Technical Institute, said they were sometimes forced to wake up as early as 3:00 a.m. to go get water from nearby communities.
“We the boys are even better because we sometimes don’t bathe before going to class for days but the girls cannot,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Northern Regional Production Manager of the GWL, Mr Albert Nyeteng, has explained that the challenge is as a result of population growth outstripping supply.
He noted that the Tamale Water System, which was built in 1972, had since seen only one major expansion in 2008 and currently lacked the capacity to meet the growing demands of the sprawling metropolis.
He said water demands in Tamale currently stood at 90,000m³ a day, while production was only between 35,000m³ and 38,000m³, which is less than half of the demand.
FROM YAHAYA NUHU NADAA, TAMALE
