Give Us Potable Water - Children Appeal To Government

Ghanaian children at the First Ghana Water Forum in Accra have appealed to government to make potable water available in all homes.

The appeal, which was contained in a communiqu issued at the end of the forum, stated that very often, children were forced to walk long distances in search of potable water for use by their families.

'We have had to wake up very early in the morning to begin the search for water that never seems to end. All these have been done at the expense of our health, education and development,' Master Michael Denneh and Rufinah Baazina who jointly read the communique said.

The children, who were representatives of the 10 regions, were supported by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to make their views on the lack of clean safe water known to government.

They complained that there were a few boreholes and standpipes within the communities, “and in most cases, there are no underground pipelines leading to our homes; the few that find their way to our homes are either too rusty or punctured and tend to be the entry point for contaminated and harmful water.”

The children were sad that prior information was not given to the people in the communities when water was to be rationed and said, 'we, therefore, are not able to store enough water before we are hit with the problem.'

Touching on some negative practices associated with water usage, they blamed fishermen who use harmful chemicals for fishing for causing the pollution of water bodies.

The children appealed to managers of water in the country to change their maintenance culture and provide adequate storage facilities in order to make water available at all times.

They also complained of high water bills their parents often have to pay and contended that the bills were not proportional to the type of service provided since the taps did not flow regularly. They added that sometimes when the taps were running, the water supplied was coloured and in some cases had an unpleasant odour.

The children, therefore, appealed to government to enforce laws to deal with people who abuse public water sources and advocated for the re-introduction of sanitary inspectors in all communities.

They also suggested that public water bodies should be given more protection to safeguard the little water resources available.

The children commended the organisers of the forum and UNICEF for including them in the forum and were hopeful that they would continue to be part of such fora.

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