Residents of Dodome-Awuiasu appeal for potable water

Residents of Dodome-Awuiasu have made an appeal to the government for potable water.

Dodome-Awuiasu is a farming community in the Ho West District of the Volta Region. It has a population of about 2,000. The predominant occupation is cash crop farming. The community has two basic schools – E.P primary school and Dodome-Awuiasu L/A junior high school – and a clinic.

It has a good road leading to the community from the regional capital, Ho. The road lies between two mountains. This gives a serene environment and a green view which makes for a good vacation destination. Residents say, their major challenge is access to potable water.

They depend on rainwater and a stream that passes through the outskirts of the community.

How is the water situation?

Women and children walk for about 20 minutes per trip several times a day in search of water.

In the dry season, access to water is more challenging because there are no rains and the stream dries up.

A 13-year-old junior high school pupil in her second year, Rachael Agbemabia, like other children, wakes up as early as 4am to fetch water from the stream. This is the only time one can fetch clean water.

Agbemabia said, “sometimes we wait here for a long period of time but we’ll just get some [small quantity of] water to bath so we manage it like that. We use this water for cooking and other home chores…[we’re exposed to] germs in the water and sometimes makes us to fall sick.”

She stated that the time spent in search of water affects her education. She said, “sometimes our colleagues start lessons before we get to the class. Sometimes we go to school after first break.”

She made an appeal to the government to “come to our aid to get potable water in our village.”

Efforts made by residents to get potable water

Gift Tsama is a native of Dodome Awuiasu who resides in Accra.

He said the youths in the community built two boreholes to provide water but they are not functioning anymore.

Tsama said several appeals have been made to the government and philanthropists over the years to provide potable water but all have proved futile.

He visited the community during the Easter holidays with the objective of raising funds from natives, both home and abroad, to build a mechanised source of water.

He stated that while the community waits for support from the government and humanitarians, it has set a fundraising target of GHC100,000 to repair the old boreholes.

At a fundraising durbar held on Easter Sunday, Tsama urged the residents to contribute their widow’s mite towards the project.

The Dufia of Dodome-Awuiasu and his elders commended the youth for their initiative. They appealed to the government to support with the youths’ initiative to complete the project as soon as possible.

Reporting by Albert Kuzor in the Volta Region

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