Advertisement

Salesians Provide New Clean Water Source in Ghana’s Jasikan Diocese in Borehole Project

Credit: Salesian Missions

The U.S.-based development arm of the Religious Institute of the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), Salesian Missions, has facilitated the construction of a new borehole in Nafa Nkwanta village in Ghana’s Catholic Diocese of Jasikan.

The new borehole project was part of the Salesian Clean Water Initiative

“The borehole was drilled by the main road which allows farmers to have access to potable water on their way to their farms,” SDB officials say in a Wednesday, January 12 report

The borehole is expected to benefit 36 people who are actively involved in rearing livestock and other farming activities, the Salesian missionaries say. 

"Indirectly there are 320 people in the village who benefit as well,” the SDB officials say. 

Advertisement

In the report, Leticia Gyan, a resident of Nafa Nkwanta village says before the borehole was drilled, it was "really difficult to find drinking water here when the stream dries." 

"Sometimes we have to go to Senase, a community 7 km (approximately 4.3 miles) away, to get some water for drinking. So, we have to ration it otherwise. When we finish it, we have to walk through hills and valleys to reach Senase in order to get water again," Gyan has been quoted as saying. 

"I think now we can also bathe. I am very happy. We are all happy," Gyan says in the January 12 report, and adds, “It has been our dream and we have been praying about it.”

Still in Ghana, SDB members have also drilled boreholes in Amanfoso village and Bono in the Diocese of Sunyani.

In the January 12 report, SDB officials say that in 2021, more than 3.57 million people in Ghana were living in extreme poverty, the majority of them in rural areas. 

More in Africa

"Those living on less than $1.90 a day in rural regions reached nearly 3.3 million, while 278,000 extremely poor people were located in urban areas. Rural poverty remains widespread in the dry savannah region that covers roughly two thirds of Ghana’s northern territory," they say. 

The Salesians add that small-scale farms suffer the most from the lack of infrastructure and equipment, "which are needed to shift from subsistence farming to more modern commercial farming which would yield greater incomes and a chance to escape poverty." 

U.N Water estimates that 2.2 billion people in the world are living without access to safe water.

"One in four primary schools has no drinking water service, with students using unprotected water sources or going thirsty," officials of the U.N agency say. 

They add that more than 700 children under age five years die every day from diarrheal disease linked to unsafe water and poor sanitation.

Advertisement

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.