For more than a month, residents of the Nsawam-Adoagyiri Municipality and surrounding communities have lived without water. Their taps are not flowing. This is because the Densu River which serves the community is drying up.
The situation has been attributed to the dry weather condition and other human activities such as illegal mining and farming along the banks of the river.
Residents forced to drink from here
Residents, mostly women and children have no choice than to either walk or drive several miles just to get the bank of the tributary of the Densu River to fetch water .
Some of them (especially school children) have to abandon classes early in the morning to fetch water. The situation is taking a toll on academic work in some schools in the area.
Emmanuel Amenu, a thirty year old taxi driver in the Nsawam Municipality comes here every day with his taxi full of yellow gallons, to fetch water for his passengers.
The Nsawam treatment plant
Citi News’ Pearl Akanya Ofori’s visit to the Nsawam headworks on Saturday revealed that the river with a maximum capacity of 17 meters, had gone below its minimum of two meters.
The Densu River is now filled with silt such that one can even walk on the dry ground in the river bed.
Measures
As a result of the shortage, the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, has deployed water tankers to service residents and schools in the Nsawam- Adoagyiri municipality.
The deployment of the water tankers is being done by the Ghana Water company Limited, the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) and the National Security.
The intervention by the GWCL, is intended to mitigate the impact of the water shortage that has hit the area.
Meanwhile the company has blamed the residents for contributing to the prevailing situation.
The GWCL told Citi News on Monday that the situation would persist if residents did not put a stop to polluting the Densu River.
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By: Pearl Akanya Ofori /Citifmonline .com/Ghana