Frontiers Mission Network, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), based in Sunyani has in partnership with the Zion Community Church International provided three boreholes for three communities in the Sawla – Tuna – Kalba district in the Savannah Region.
The donation to the beneficiary communities, Jinekaar, Keleteng and Bayelteng, which are all in the Sawla -Tuna-Kalba Constituency, is to ease acute water challenges being faced by people in the communities.
The initiative formed part of the humanitarian activities the Frontiers Mission Network has been undertaking in the district to improve upon the lives of children and their families.
At separate functions to commission the boreholes, Apostle Dr Moses Sansa Konjon, Executive Director of the NGO, in a speech noted that source of potable water formed an integral part of all spheres of human survival and said the Frontiers Mission Network was committed to work with communities and relevant stakeholders to address challenges associated with water.
Since 2016, the Frontiers Mission Network has been investing in the district in the areas of health and nutrition, sustainable livelihood development and strengthening community organizations as well as education.
Apostle Dr Moses Sansa, said statistics from the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization revealed that about 2.1 billion people lived without access to safe water at home and added that children particularly girls and women were the most vulnerable.
“Additionally, more than 700 children under five years of age die every day from diarrhoea, which is linked to unsafe water and poor sanitation. Globally, 80 percent of the people who have to use unsafe and unprotected water sources live in rural areas,” Apostle Sansa said.
The Executive Director said for the world, particularly Ghana, to attain the Sustainable Development Goals, especially goal six, which discusses access to clean water and sanitation by 2030, countries must invest in sustainable water supply to make access to clean water easy for women and children.
Apostle Sansa expressed optimism that the boreholes provided to the communities would reduce the amount of time spent, especially by girls and women to search for water and enable girls have much time to concentrate in school.
He said it also has the tendency to reduce incidences of outbreak of diseases such diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid fever, bilharzia and skin diseases.
He, explained that water was life and said when there was easy access to water; it boosts economic activities as women would have enough time to work and cost of medical bills would significantly be reduced.
He also admonished parents to take the future of their children serious and encourage their wards to attend school, adding that when the children attain higher education they would be able to contribute to develop their families and communities.
The beneficiary communities expressed gratitude to the Frontiers Mission Network for the numerous interventions being implemented in the district to improve their lives.
Mr Balyir , at Jinekaar lauded the NGO for providing the borehole to his community, indicating that the women and girls in the community used to trek far distances in search for water and added that the borehole was a huge boost to the community.
Whilst promising to periodically maintain the borehole to enable it last, Balyir appealed to the Frontiers Mission Network and other Non Governmental Orgainazations to assist the community with another borehole to help adequately serve the large population.
Two community members, who spoke to Yagbon News at Jinekaar and Keleteng respectively (at the inauguration), said they were happy they had water in their communities at long last. They said water had been their main problem for some years now and they had now been relieved.
According to them, they normally walked about six kilometres from their community to a stream far from their village to fetch water for their daily domestic use.
She said it was mostly they, the younger ones who had been going to fetch water and it normally affected their early reporting for school.
“Sometimes, by the time we come back from the stream it will be 7:00 a.m. and that makes us late to school in spite of the fact that we wake up early enough to go and fetch water,” she added.
A community leader at Jinekaar, Edoo , on behalf of the three communities, thanked the benefactor for their charitable donation which he said was going to improve their living conditions.
“We have suffered for far too long in terms of potable water and today through this t NGO, God has answered our prayers. We are equally grateful to the leadership and the Ministers of Zion Community Church International who connected us to the NGO. When you commit yourself to the Lord there will be blessings,” he stated.
Source:yagbonradioonline
