As part of efforts to improve sanitary conditions and access to water in rural areas of the country, Nokware Integrity Foundation Ghana, a non-governmental organization with support from Nimdy Switzerland, has commissioned and handed over a community water project to Nsakye, a farming community in the Akuapem South Municipality of the Eastern Region.
The Nsakye community since its inception has heavily relied on the Nsakye River as their main source of water aside from occasional reliance on rainwater.
This has largely contributed to increasing cases of absenteeism by students and in some cases, lateness as students would have to walk for miles in the morning to fetch water from the Nsakye River which flows on the outskirts of the community for their daily chores before school.
In an interview with Citi News after officially handing over the mechanized water system with poly tanks to the community at the Nsakye Presby M/A School, the Project Manager of Nokware Integrity Foundation, Emmanuel Doe, said the project was necessary to help with effective washing of hands with soap and water in this COVID-19 era.
“When we came to this community some months ago, we were told by the headmaster that there are a lot of challenges with water since its a mountainous area. Access to water is very poor, so we liaise with our main funding organization which is Nimdi Switzerland, and then they were able to come to our aid by putting up this beautiful edifice for the people of Nsakye community.”
“When I interacted with the headmaster some months ago, he told me that most at times, classes are disrupted because of the absence of water. The students have to trek a long distance to go and get water from the Nsakye River, and we knew that this was troubling to them so we quickly came to their aid by bringing up this mechanized bore hole.”
“So I will to call on all opinion leaders of this town, NGOs, Corporate bodies to come to their aid. We can also offer some little support to our various communities because some communities in Ghana do not have water and we know the essence of water in our lives.”
“The absence of water brings about a lot of water-borne diseases coupled with the unhygienic conditions of students in the school, and we know in this Covid-19 era, one of the basic instructions is to wash hands frequently so we think bringing this project to this community is going to better the lives of the residents here in Nsakye”.
The headmaster of Nsakye Presby M/A school, who was appreciative of the gesture in a Citi News interview said the water project situated on the school’s compound will go a long way to make up for the lost of contact hours.
“It’s true that water has been a major problem to us and what the Queen Mother said is true. The absence of potable water has taken away much of our contact hours, especially the main stream which is close to us is about 15 to 30 minutes to the stream, and it is also a polluted stream and that is where the students fetch water for use anytime they come to school”.
“If students use 30 minutes to fetch water everyday out of the contact hours, multiplied by the number of days, weeks and months, would cause a great lost in the contact hours. Already, the contact hours that we are managing here isn’t enough but we hope by God’s Grace that we have a Nimdi International in collaboration with Nokware Integrity Foundation coming to our aid to provide us with this potable water, the problem of contact hours being lost will be a thing of the past”.
