{"id":133984,"date":"2015-07-13T15:31:34","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T15:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=133984"},"modified":"2015-07-13T15:31:34","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T15:31:34","slug":"drinking-from-the-gutter-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/07\/drinking-from-the-gutter-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Drinking from the gutter – [Report]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fadama is the biggest and oldest slum in Ghana with a population of over 90,000 living in shack-like dwellings.<\/p>\n

Many of the people here have come to Accra to escape the poverty of their villages, looking for a better life.<\/p>\n

The People have managed to settle here for a long time under very unhygienic conditions.<\/p>\n

Many of the cholera case recorded in past outbreaks have mostly come from Old Fadama and Agbogbloshie.<\/p>\n

Contaminated water has been cited by health professional as one of the possible causes of the outbreaks here.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pipes<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the Ghana water company about 99 percent of the water connection here is illegal.<\/p>\n

This is because most of the people here cannot afford to pay for legal connections to their various homes.<\/p>\n

Pipe lines in gutters<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the Agbogbloshie market, through to Old Fadama, I see a number of exposed pipe lines laying in very dirty gutters. Most of the exposed pipes are burst. This is a common scene here.<\/p>\n

A few meters from where I stand, a man washes his tomatoes with water from a burst pipe which lies close to a gutter as many market women look on.<\/p>\n

Behind the shacks at Old Fadama is a big gutter, choked off course with all sorts of substances ranging from empty water sachet to diapers, rotten fruits and vegetables mixed with dirty dark smelly water.<\/p>\n

In this gutter lay hundreds of pipe lines connected from a main water source or chamber about 10 meters away. The hissing sounds of water can be heard as it forces its way out of the burst pipes.<\/p>\n

\"20140828_170653\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To stop the water from leaking black polythene have been used to seal the leakages, but this clearly is not working as water keeps gushing out.<\/p>\n

These pipe lines are connected to various homes in this slum community.<\/p>\n

Residents Reaction<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what is giving us cholera.\u201d Says Dasana Abdulai \u201cThe pipes are supposed to be underground but they are always in the gutter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"20140828_165801\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dasana Abdulai is a dark man of about six foot three. He stands in front of his house and complains bitterly about the situation. He says he has been doing his best to encourage people to take their pipes from the gutters.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven today we removed one out of the gutter.\u201d He says \u201cWe make arrangement and we ask them to remove it so that it can pass by the gutters\u201d<\/p>\n

Water is an essential commodity for people here and they do everything not to live without it, including jumping into dirty drains to connect pipes to their homes.<\/p>\n

Moustafa another resident here is in a gutter trying to connect a pipe to his master\u2019s house. He refuses to talk and insists I speak to his master who was nowhere near the scene.<\/p>\n

Almost all the pipe lines in the gutters lead to locations popularly called \u201cshower\u201d<\/p>\n

There are over two hundred showers here at Old Fadama. A typical shower is a small space with a tank from which people fetch water. There is also a big basin full on boiling water. There are also a minimum of four cubicles at every shower which serve as the bathrooms.<\/p>\n

Sikena manages one of the showers. She tells me she knows that the pipe lines are in the gutters but there is nothing they can do about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere nothing we can do about it. We know that it can cause cholera but there is nothing we can do. If we don\u2019t use this water where are we going to get water\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Health Implications<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year there was a severe outbreak of cholera in Accra. Over fourteen Thousand got infected many of them from Agbobloshie and Old Fadama. \u00a0Public health facilities across the capital were stretch beyond unimaginable limits drastically affecting quality health care deliver.<\/p>\n

Head of the Adabraka polyclinic Dr. Ebenezer Oduro Mensah explains that in a setting where you have burst pipeline in the midst of a possibly contaminated environment, \u201cthe Vibrio Cholerae bacteria which causes cholera could potentially get into the water or the pipe lines and be transported to several places\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly authorities need to take a look at this situation which cannot be ruled out as one of the causes of the persistent cholera outbreaks.<\/p>\n

Ghana Water Company\u2019s response<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ghana water company claims all attempts to restore sanity in the water situation at Agbogbloshie and old Fadama have been opposed by residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a program to lay huge pipe lines into the system so that they can tap them on the line.\u201d Says Stanley Martey, Public relations officer for the Ghana Water Company. \u201cWe do that it means that we are going to get customers within the area to be legal customers but this has been faced with fierce resistance. It\u2019s been very difficult for staff of Ghana Water Company to go into Agbogbloshie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, even if residents of old Fadama agree to allow the water company sanitize the water supply system, the Ghana Water Company says it will not be economically feasible because the slum has been on the demolition list for a very long time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By: Betty Kankam-Boadu\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fadama is the biggest and oldest slum in Ghana with a population of over 90,000 living in shack-like dwellings. Many of the people here have come to Accra to escape the poverty of their villages, looking for a better life. The People have managed to settle here for a long time under very unhygienic conditions. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":133999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[15,38],"yoast_head":"\nDrinking from the gutter - [Report] - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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