Ghana: The double agony of Dunga-poverty and polluted water

The people of Dunga, a settlement in the Tamale Metropolitan Area, drink from a dam which is usually polluted with human excreta.

Due to the poor source of water, several members of the community have been afflicted with diseases which have drawn them deeper into a poverty laden vicious cycle.

This was revealed by members of the community who had thronged a sanitation and water poverty hearing on Monday at Dungu.

The forum was organised by WaterAid Ghana in collaboration with New Energy, aimed at creating awareness about the water and sanitation situation
in the region.

It was also aimed at making water and sanitation an item of attention for World Leaders who would be meeting in New York in September to
deliberate on the problems confronting the globe.

Later in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Madam Lamisi Dabire, Communication and Campaign Officer of WaterAid Ghana, called on the
government to show more commitment to the provision of water and sanitation to make the life of the people better.

She observed that a tour of the country reveals that a lot of people do not have access to quality water and good sanitation.

Madam Dabire said it was unfortunate that there was a lack of political will globally to deal with the poverty of water and sanitation adding, governments had recently signed a compact to consider water as a basic right and must operationalise that commitment.

She said the MGDs were left with only five years to be completed but water and sanitation were still very poor in most communities in Ghana and appealed to the government to take more action to ratify the situation.

Almost all the speakers from the Dungu community decried the poor sanitation in the area due to lack of toilet facilities.

Source: AllNewsGhana, 1st September 2010