World Water Day

Yesterday was world water day and all well wishers across the globe did their best with several occasions to grace the day. I will want to tackle it from my country (Ghana) for now but I will be referring to all countries at the later part of this message.

The day here in Ghana went well as one would say. We had almost all the media houses talking abut it and giving the pace for water experts to comment on. The scarcity of water in developing country is very alarming. It is to our notice that many efforts have been done by several developing partners and agencies to end this cancer once and for all but the more they try, the more the situation worsen. In Ghana, the government including several humanitarian organization like the WaterAid Ghana and small organizations like Rescue Aid Foundation have tried to give good drinking water to the masses but the big question here is; ARE OUR EFFORT MAKING ANY IMPACT?

If access to good and hygienic drinking water is a right to every human on earth, then why is it so difficult to make it available? Even in the urban areas in all developing countries, water is still scarce. What is going wrong? Are we throwing the tax payers monies into the frame to researchers? Are they doing their contract jobs right?

No one dare to put this cancer on the change of the climate. This climatic change started not too long ago. The problem with accessing water has been a thing for a long time now. Someone is simply not doing his work well or not setting his agenders well. In Ghana, we have several developing partners pouring huge amount of money into the government’s coffers but I can boldly say that all is a waste. No improvement. Situation is the same as ever. Just take a trip to the rural areas in developing countries and see how worse their water crises are. They have no choice than to drink with the animals and from dirty streams and river source.

Humanitarian organizations like Rescue Aid Foundation is trying to stand tall among this crisis by wanting funds to go into these rural areas to teach the people of how to preserve their limited water and distill it for their consumption. We just dug a well for the people of Ative in the Volta region in March this year and are looking forward to do more if the funding is provided. We don’t only dig wells for them but will teach them how too many soaps to use.

For God sake; water occupies the biggest part of the earth so one would ask; how on earth should water be a problem to human. I still stand with the thought that, something is going wrong or someone is not doing his/her job properly. There have been several demonstrations by Ghana to petition the government to terminate the contract between AVRIL (World Bank’s appointed water contractor for Ghana) because they have failed in all their attempts. We are not even asking them to get new source of water but only to manage the existing one and give a fair sharing to the entire country but till these day, it’s been zero on their part. As to why the government has not heard the cry of its people, well only God can tell. Do the governments in our countries care at all? No they don’t. They do get water at their convenient because they can afford it but what of that poor family in that poor village?

In my own opinion with governments in the developing world when it comes to executing projects like water, agriculture, electricity and etc… this is how it stands;

We need governments that will focus on one development agender for his/her first term in office (four years). We need evidence achievement and not trying all aspects. No government is able to achieve anything profitable to the people because they have a lot of projects in mind and yet have a limited time. Due to democracy, it’s always impossible for them to achieve all before their term ends. Why won’t a government put just one goal in his agender and use his first term to achieve it. You can only win more votes if your people are satisfied with one thing. Ending poverty is a gradually process and putting an end to one crisis is seen as a step to achieve another if giving the chance again. We have governments initiating several projects at the same time and before one will say ‘’JACK’’ their term in office is over and they leave behind their uncompleted projects. The new government won’t touch it because that’s now his agender of plan…

Conclusion: Water Crisis can be a thing of the past. We have more water bodies surrounding us and that means; water is much more than humans. We proper mechanism needs to be fixed and the right people for the job needs to be contracted.

We are Rescue Aid Foundation believes that water Is the right of every human therefore we need to make it accessible to everyone. YES WE CAN!

Selasi Koffi Ackom

Director, RAF

Ghana.

www.rescuesouls.org