What’s the situation of Tain that gave us a President?

A BRIDGE OVER RIVER TAIN

Lest we forget who gave Ghana the third President of the Fourth Republic! Fact: Tain crowned Professor Evans Atta Mills as President of Ghana. So therefore what happens to Tain happens to us all. We should never forget the Tain Constituency. Meanwhile, a bridge over River Tain gives the constituency the appearance of a large zit on the nose of the Mills administration.


Here is a short trip down memory lane. Once upon a time in recent years, when Ketu, Keta, Bantama, Manhyia, Weija and the other beloved “World Banks” and “strongholds” of the NPP and NDC could not deliver a President in the double-run 2008 elections, a little known constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region, 40 miles in the neighbourhood of Wenchi came into the limelight. Never in Ghana’s history has any one constituency held the highest stake in deciding on our presidency.


The only other parallel is Broward County in the USA which became the decider for George Walker Bush as its 43rd President after a highly-contested election that seemed to lean toward former Vice President and climate change advocate, Al Gore.


So on December 30th, 2008, the then candidate Professor Atta Mills and the able former Flight Lieutenant and President Jerry John Rawlings rushed to the Tain Constituency as the last battle-field in the canvassing of votes. With that, Ghana celebrated the New Year with a run-off presidential election on January 2, 2009. For four full days, Tain was under siege. A modern-day election war was staged on the grounds of the land around the Tain River in response to Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan’s pronouncement that Tain will be the vote clincher since the December 28 Presidential run-off results indicated a tie. Immediately, all political roads led to Tain to resolve the statistical dead-heat of an election for the presidency.


King- (and queen-) makers are special people. They must be because they are princes and princesses. So to tread the path of the many who stampeded the Tain Constituency soon after the announcement, I decided to drive through this historic constituency with the same speed as the vote-grabbers. I had the urge to retrace the steps of the politicians. I went in wondering to see if the constituency looks and feels like a place of princes and princesses of Ghana.


Here is what I saw. Truly, the constituency is a sleepy farming community with people who are predominantly farmers, said to cultivate mostly food crops, especially maize and yams. At Tainso, heading toward the constituency capital of Nsawkaw through Yabraso and Attakrom on a bridge over River Tain, I wondered what promises were made to these folks to have informed the casting of their precious votes.


On a perfectly good road is a god-forsaken bridge. As seen in the photograph on this page, the bridge is made of wooden planks, unevenly arranged. At best, the planks give the bridge a look of a weak set of teeth with some rotten and others about to fall out. The bridge is so narrow that only one vehicle can drive on it at a time. Clearly, the bridge is crying for repairs, no – the bridge is demanding reconstruction. That bridge must not be the lot of the king/queen-makers of Ghana’s presidency. It is unthinkable to imagine that the numerous modern-day metal-rimmed horses, the quintessential four-wheel drive vehicles with shiny horns, stampeded over this bridge to get to voters. Those vehicles might have caused further damage to that bridge. Now that the election has been over for one year and two months, at the least, the bridge must be repaired for the people of Tain. River Tain needs some respect.


The King-makers of Ghana election 2008 are due to be thanked. From what I witnessed during my drive-through of the Tain Constituency a week ago, I pray that these noble people have not just been left to honker down and hold their hands together to sing kumbaya far into the 2012 elections.


That every election season, towns and villages scattered throughout the armpits of Ghana become destinations of choice to vote-seeking candidates is an undisputable fact. But in Ghana’s political history, no other place have been the target of the heaviest treading in the shortest time span like the then unknown tranquil constituency of Tain.


Easter symbolizes the resurrection and ascension of Jesus the Christ and the redemption of man. If creation is crying for redemption, then without a doubt, Ghana needs redemption too. Tain is crying for redemption too! The streets of Accra, Kumasi, Tamale and rural areas display a parade of idle youth who are unemployed, under-employed or unemployable. Our teeming youth are therefore fair game for anyone to use them – for drugs, crime and all.


Enduring questions: What’s the situation with the youth of Tain? To what extent were they used during the elections? How many of the youth of Tain were foot soldiers during the high-drama 2008 elections? What were their expectations for their lives regardless of whoever won? When would those expectations be fulfilled? And if their expectations are not fulfilled, what options are available to them? What are the prospects for their lives five to ten years from now?


How many of the youth of Tain are roaming the streets of Accra, Sunyani and Kumasi selling whatever they can lay hands on? How many are operating as Area Boys in their home-towns, idle and hoping for redemption?


Have NDC foot soldiers of Tain Constituency taken matters into their own youthful hands and seized toilets in their neck of the wood? Are they also experiencing a sense of hopelessness? How many of them have been lucky enough to grab some of the estimated one million and six hundred jobs that the government has bragged for creating? Yes, what’s the matter with the youth of Tain?


Tain is the microcosm of Ghana. The government has declared this year as the year of the youth. One would expect and hope that the test of the success or failure of the Mills administration would be measured by the improvement or non-improvement of the human condition of Tain. How come that since the elections, not much has been heard of Tain? Has Tain been forgotten so soon? Was it just a pawn in our democracy, raped, used and abused just for votes and then we moved on?


At least, Tain should deserve something, a pay-back or thank-you of some sort for the inconvenience and trampling and pressure and excessive attention it suffered to give us a president. If Tain has been a human being, it would still be suffering from a deep depression and would need extensive professional counselling to recover.


So what would be the lot of Tain by 2012? Would it be the same story as pre-2008? Would anything change? Tain must smile. Tain must laugh. Tain must experience joy. Tain must see development. If no constituency in Ghana experience development by 2012, at least the human condition of the people of Tain must improve.

A Tale of Two Earthquakes: A Cautionary Tale for Ghana at 53

Flip a coin. Head or tail? If you had to make a choice between Haiti and Chile as a homeland in the face of nature’s fury, which would it be? Haiti folks are black people like us, probably, our long long lost relatives, products of our collective painful history of slavery and colonialism. But to maintain your sanity, don’t choose Haiti because you would be doing so at your own hot peril.

Choose Chile and chances are that you would not chill – much. What might be misleading is that Haiti and Chile are both five letter words, just like Ghana. But don’t be deceived.

Humanity is vulnerable and crises have the unique potential to expose human vulnerability to sorry limits. Crisis situations can lay us bare, butt-naked bare. Human fragility, be it individual, organizational or national, is at the mercy of crises. Fact: crises are not walks in the park. They are not only overwhelming, nerve-racking and heart-breaking but they mightily test ones state of preparedness and resilience while adrenalin rushes in to worsen already bad situations.

An earthquake, being a sudden and unpredictable shaking of mother earth, can potentially bring people to their knees. Just forty-seven days apart, Haiti and Chile experienced earthquakes, both of catastrophic proportions. Chile’s earthquake registered 8.8 magnitude on the Richter scale while Haiti’s was a 7.0. But in terms of the intensity of the shaking, Chile’s earthquake is estimated to have been between a whopping 500-800 times more severe than Haiti’s.

However, the severity of a natural disaster or of any disaster lies in the extent of destruction it unleashes on humanity. Fault-lines in a country’s development tend to heighten natural fault-lines which cause earthquakes. The aftermath of nature’s fury on these two countries presents rich lessons to a country like ours which is expanding with layers of development over-laying multiple layers of underdevelopment in a nonsensical mumbo-jumbo fashion.

While the Chilean economy is considered well-placed to rebuild, Haiti’s economy and its very future is placed solidly at the mercy of the kindness of the world and of course, in God’s cushy bosom. Yet, the earth shook harder under Chile than under Haiti.

One explanation for the vast difference in the impact on the two countries is that Chile enforces a strict building code. In Haiti, anybody can build a house without conforming to rules. Not surprisingly, the building stock in Haiti is weak. Without conforming to standard construction designs in building houses that can withstand nature’s wrath of earthquakes, a country remains at the mercy of nature’s fury.

On the centre-spread of The Ghanaian Times of last Thursday, March 4, is a very important news item with headline, “Does Ghana have a building code?” The paper quoted one J.K. Sarpong, Head of Civil Engineering Division of the Architectural and Engineering Service Limited (AESL), admitting that Ghana does not, on its own, have a building code! Instead, Ghana is supposed to be using the West African Building Code which was prepared years ago so therefore uses the British Building Code.

He added: “This code is very difficult to come by.” So therefore many people are building houses in Ghana who know nothing about a building Code! They just build, in a free-for-all regime. Wow! We are damned!

He also admitted that most buildings in Accra (which is an earthquake prone zone), are not designed to withstand earthquakes since most buildings are designed and built by individuals who are not professionals. How do you abide by a building code that is very difficult to come by? That you don’t even know about? The AESL also says that it’s not responsible for enforcing the code. That it is the sole responsibility of the district assemblies, which do not have the expertise to understand, let alone capable of enforcing the code. You and I must panic at this frightening fact.

A major earthquake in Ghana can send our country back into pre-colonial under-development status. My mother, Madam Beatrice Ansah Israel, tells me about the horrors of the June 22, 1939 earthquake which was at a 6.5 magnitude. She was a young girl growing up at Oblogo near Weija, then a serene fishing village but now notorious as the dumping site-of-choice for Accra’s ‘bola’.

Those days, Accra had a much lower population density with fewer buildings. Houses at Oblogo were mud/thatch houses (with straw roofing). Now, Accra is exploding at the seams with indiscriminate buildings made of concrete. Accra is already an urban catastrophe. Let’s face it, our capital city cannot boast of environmental sustainability. If nothing is done for and about Accra (and soon) to reverse the direction this city has embarked on, one-day one-day, Accra will implode.

Vertical living by way of constructing storey buildings is increasingly becoming the fashion. I asked five people who are building houses if they know about the Building Code and they looked at me as if I’ve just arrived from outer space. “Building what?” they asked. I responded, “Code!” They sneered at me and moved on. The matter rests! But should this matter rest? At our own peril? When lawlessness is allowed to dissolve into layers of piles of concrete, you know that a country is asking for trouble; big trouble!

There is also the sticky matter of leadership. Weeks after Haiti’s earthquake, there was a no-show in national leadership. The government was non-existent, not seen, not heard. When he reappeared, with his palace in rubble, President Rene Preval looked like he was in a trance – so dull, disabled to provide much-needed leadership for his earthquake-ravaged country. Haiti was effectively handed over to an odd collection of international NGOs and countries, without coordination.

Compared to Haiti’s leadership buffoonery is the display of Chilean responsible leadership. Within 24 hours after the catastrophic earthquake, the outgoing Chilean president, Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria, spoke to her people through a press conference to calm down ruffled nerves and to guarantee public order. She had a coordination meeting with a myriad of stakeholders which including seismologists, military, police, NGOs, relevant government ministries, private sector representatives and key representatives of the in-coming administration.

So the tales of the two earthquakes are both catastrophic. Nature unleashed its fury on the two countries and destroyed buildings, roads and other infrastructure. Many died. But Haiti will be down on its knees long after the world has moved on to other pressing stories. On the other hand, although Chile is still struggling under the burden of one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history, its chances of recovering are brighter.

Enduring questions for Ghana at 53: Today being Ghana’s 53rd year after independence, a national birthday of some sort to mark maturity, a few enduring questions are in order. For how long would the free-for-all anybody-build-anywhat-anywhere regime last? Who is checking the strength of Ghana’s building stock? Do we want to go the way of Haiti where a natural catastrophe translates into national ruins or the example of Chile where even in the face of a natural disaster (worst than Haiti’s), still has room for hope of recovery? Does Ghana need redemption? When? How? Who would initiate it?

A brush with a hit-and-run drunk driver

Dying is too easy in Ghana because several factors prematurely push us into hot graves. One of such death-push factors is vehicular accidents that are caused by reckless drivers who come from their lunatic fringes and as if on grand suicide missions, use vehicles as weapons of mass destruction to strike innocent people.

Last Sunday afternoon, I bore witness to hit-and-run drunk driving when I found myself in a freak accident that was gifted to me by a character who had arrived from a drunken post-funeral lunatic fringe to take over an otherwise peaceful road.

The story: A certain Gabriel Kwame Agbo and two others were reeking of alcohol after a funeral. One of them was boldly and recklessly driving a white Toyota pick-up with registration number GV385R, belonging to the Registrar General’s Department. A distance away on a quite Madina back-road, I noticed the pick-up coming at me in a zigzag manner. Sensing catastrophe, I quickly packed my car, terrified. Within a minute, the ‘mad’ vehicle came smashing into my car on the driver’s side where I was seated. Then, mindlessly, the driver and drunken crew took off with award-winning bravado.

Swiftly, witnesses chased him to record the vehicle registration number and to bring him back to the accident scene. Then, the mind-blowing post-accident foolishness began. The three courageous drunkards set out to senselessly quarrel, amidst a lot of chaos. I felt as if I was watching a horror movie in which I was a character. Fortunately, I’m alive to share this story.

The lesson I learned is that all it takes to see death face-to-face is a split second incident. My experience brought to mind the many heart-breaking news stories that regularly hit the news space. Yet, these nation-wide senseless accidents are not abating. Here are a few of such painfully annoying stories.

On June 30th, 2009, a GNA story headlined, “Hit and run driver killed two, injured three others at Agona Kwanyako.” In this story, one knuckle-headed Emmanuel Opoku Odoom, aged 19, surrendered himself to the Divisional MTTU at Agona Swedru four days after he had knocked down and killed two people on the spot.

In late January this year, another GNA headline screamed, “Driver arrested for drunk driving.” The driver, Bernard Brew, a 25-year-old agent of Multi Television, drove a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. He was arrested by the Asante-Mampong police at a barrier on the Kumasi-Mampong road while speeding in his attempt to recklessly overtake a long queue of vehicles. He was not only reeking of alcohol but he had a bottle of Castle Bridge gin in his car. As a result of the arrest, society was saved from his lunatic spree.

In a matter of four months between late last year and mid-January this year, four cases of hit-and-run accidents were reported in the Oda municipality. In one of them, the victim did not die on the spot. If the killer-driver had rushed the male adult pedestrian to the hospital after the accident, he might have survived. In two other instances at Akyem Akroso and Akyem Bantama, a man and a school boy, respectively, were knocked down and killed by speeding hit-and-run drivers.

What these stories have in common are audacity, speeding, impatience, recklessness, foolishness and heartlessness. Lunatic driving produces orphans and widows/widowers. Yet, some drivers remain possessed with the vehicular fetish, losing their minds as if they can live forever.

Yet, respectable organizations harbour dangerous drivers. It’s not only taxi and tro-tro drivers who carry licences to kill. To my utter shock, my initial investigations at the Registrar General’s Department revealed that Gabriel Kwame Agbo is a known ‘trouble-maker’ with disciplinary problems and alcoholic tendencies. So I asked an administrator of the department, “How many people would he have to maim and/or kill with a state vehicle before he is relieved of his position as a driver?”

Vehicular accidents in Ghana have been described by various people as a menace, foe and a deadly disease. The life of everyone – everyone – is in danger. You’re in danger either in a car or as a pedestrian – young or old, male or female. It’s no respecter of persons or location unless you become a recluse and lock yourself up inside a room. But even that, a lunatic driver could find you to maim or kill.

Apart from the misery of physical and psychological pain and deaths, road accidents cost Ghana US$165 million every year. Think of what that kind of money can accomplish for mother/father Ghana!

A vehicle is nothing but a pack of tin and rubber. But worse of all, it is a weapon of destruction. Its destructiveness is heightened when the judgment of the operator of the vehicle is impaired.

The management of the aftermath of an accident reveals a lot about a person. A hit-and-run driver might be hiding something (alcohol, drugs) or trying to protect and/or absolve him/herself from responsibility. A display of unnecessary patapaa bravado attitude is the ultimate test of a person’s character. It is, truly, where the rubber meets the road, where the essence of character fully shines through.

The thought that a person should run away because he/she thinks he/she can get away regardless of the consequences of the suffering of a victim (even in death), is beyond cowardliness. It is crack foolishness and lacks any show of humanity.

Dealing with the police after an accident is another ball game altogether. Police procedures are lousy and tend to discourage victims to desire to seek out the police, take problems to them, expect any help from them, and to have hope in them. In my experience, I witnessed no hurry to find and arrest the culprit despite all the superbly relevant information I gathered about him from the accident scene, which I dutifully handed over to the police.

The indirect message transmitted to me consistently was that I carried the burden of the problem. For instance, I had the chance to write my statement a whopping 22 hours after the accident. One of the witnesses wrote his statement three days after although he had voluntarily gone to the police station during the first hour when everything was fresh.

On Wednesday, the IGP, Paul Tawiah, pleaded for help in redeeming the sinking image of the Ghana Police Service. Mr Tawiah, charity begins at home! On the ground zero of police operation – at the Police Station level – the Ghana Police Service grabs and nibbles and chews and eats its own stinky tail.

My case only received the deserved attention because the third day after the accident coincided with the first day of assumption of duty of a new commander who happens to be my personal friend. Prior to that, my case had been placed on a toss-toss nonsensical dance that was going no-where.

BACK-STORY: In all of these, I bore witness that human beings are made for goodness. Two angels, Arnold Dedzo and Michael Asare provided loving assistance at the accident scene and thereafter. David Eklu has truly “hit the ground running” as the Commander of the Madina Police. All my fingers are crossed that he would succeed in eliminating (reducing?) the lunacy and bring sanity to Madina/Adenta.

Child Streetism in Accra. Child Streetism in Tamale too!

Last Tuesday morning, I heard a heart-breaking report on Fiila FM radio in Tamale about the plight of young people who live on the streets. My heart raced to find the writer of the report. So today, I bring you verbatim, the report of child streetism in Tamale, which is said to be the fastest growing city in West Africa.

It’s an honour to share this page today with Ziem Liebyang Joseph Philip (better known as Joseph Ziem) who researched and wrote the said report. Ziem is the News Editor of Fiila FM and doubles as the Northern Regional Correspondent of the Daily Dispatch newspaper. You may contact him at ziemjoseph@yahoo.com. What immediately follows is his report.

“The negligence of some parents to cater adequately for their children is gradually breeding more street children in the Tamale Metropolis. The children are now using the Tamale main Transport station behind the Ghana Telecom Offices as their "homes" where they sleep, bath and eat.

Even though some street adults are also using the station as their sleeping place, about 75 percent of the people using the station as their homes are children usually referred to as "street children". Some of them are without parents and relatives while others are neglected by their irresponsible parents.

Smoking of cigarettes has become part of their lives. Nobody cares how they eat, sleep or access healthcare delivery. One can truly feel or get the clear picture on how these children are managing life only when you take the pain to roam around the Tamale town in the night.

These youngsters, both boys and girls ranging from the ages of 5 to 18 sleep together with some hard guys on pavements, in front of stores and on benches especially around the bus-stops. Most of them are involved in smoking, stealing and prostitution. Some of them are eager to go to school or learn trade but they have no support.

Reports available to Fiila FM from the Youth Idleness Control Centre (YICC), a Tamale based NGO which helps some of these children to learn a trade, has it that the Tamale Metropolis alone hosts close to 4,000 street children who are going through all forms of abuses and life difficulties.
However, our reporter Joseph Ziem asked the children whether they see themselves as street children? They all said yes, but they were ashamed of it, and did not like to be called ‘street children.’ They preferred to be called by their own names. They are apparently very aware of how other people see them, and they told our reporter they call themselves the ‘bad street boys’ because other people think they are bad, because some of them are stealing to survive.

One other important aspect that was considered about the lives of the street children was their security in general. Because most people perceive them as neglected and abandoned children with irresponsible or no parents, they usually intimidate, harass, suppress and use them to their advantage.

But the good thing is that most of them are very cautious of their lives and thus dance to their own tunes since they are fully aware that they will have no relatives to support or come to their defence in case of any eventuality.

I asked them, in clear words why they are not in school. Almost all of them expressed the desire to be in school. Some said though they have parents who have no money to take them to school. I quickly asked, but don’t you know basic education is free in Ghana?

The children intelligently replied: so will the government give us books, bags, pencils, pens, sandals and uniforms? There is no room for us to sleep and there will be no food after school. Some said they have to work to support their families and take care of junior ones because their parents have died, or are sick, or old, just don’t work at all.

The children expect to find work in the street, find friends, earn money, and be able to bring money home to cater for other family.

The children get sick easily, so they tell me, and there is no money for medicine. "If someone needs to go to hospital, we make contribution and if someone hasn’t earned money to buy food, we share what we have". This is the end of the Filla FM news report. My comments follow.

The above report about child streetism in Tamale should shock the conscience of Ghana. Several issues are apparent. First, there are irresponsible parents who enjoy making babies regardless of the reality of their situation. Why bring forth children when you know you do not have the means to take care of them? Child-bearing should not be like staking lotto, with the hopes that someday, some numbers will drop to change ones circumstance.

In times past when Ghana was an agrarian society, it was indeed critical to have several wives and children because they were needed as free labour to work on farms. But no more! The very nature of society has changed. Civilization has caught on with us making it unnecessary to empty ones groin just to populate the earth.

Without a doubt, it is the excess population that spills over into the streets. At one location in Tamale, the above report claims that children constitute 75 percent of people who live on the street. If this statistic is reliable, then we have a big problem on our hands. If nothing is done soon to stem the tide of the phenomenon of the increasing number of discarded youth throughout the county, then in ten, twenty to thirty years, this matter will get out of control and solving it will be next to impossible.

Tamale’s population stood at 300,000 in the 2000 population census. It is currently estimated that Tamale’s population is about 500,000 – still counting. In the above report, the number of street children who live on the fringes of society is estimated to be about 4,000. They are squatters in life and at the mercy of unscrupulous people like rapists. They are open to abuses and to a difficult life. Their safety is compromised.

These children are the victims of the break-down in our society. Not surprisingly, some of them consider the streets as places of hope, of promise and of opportunities, despite the risks because they do not have other options. Some young people spend endless hours of their youthful days as hawkers selling anything they can lay hands on while others are just idle. Yet, we claim that these are the future of tomorrow. Tomorrow indeed!

Fact: the street is no place to grow up. You don’t plant seeds by the roadside on rocky ground in thorns where the wind blows, where wild birds descend and pick the seeds, and yet, expect those seeds to germinate, sprout and bear fruits. As a society, if we do not straighten out this matter of child streetism, someday, we will bear these children like a crown of thorns and their children’s children like a mighty cross.

Our lacklustre national journey with water and sewerage

Without a doubt, there is a systemic failure in the management and distribution of safe water in Ghana. Besides, sewerage management is an albatross. Since the erstwhile Water and Sewerage Corporation was split up into the Ghana Water Company while the matter of sewerage was orphaned out to adoptive parents who do not particularly care or know much about how to manage waste, our country has been on a filthy slippery slope. Then a water marriage came into being with Aqua Viten Rand. Since then, many people continue to wait for their water promises to be fulfilled.

On World Water Day 2010 on Monday March 22, I went down memory lane to re-visit my life regarding water and sewerage. I came to a sad realization that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Let’s glean some wisdom from a Zen saying. It goes simply, but profoundly: “Before enlightenment, Chop wood, Carry water. After enlightenment, Chop wood, Carry water.”

My first memory of myself growing up was during the first decade of Ghana’s independence in Ocansey Kope, a little Ada village by the Atlantic Ocean. At the time, I chopped wood and carried water. At the time, when nature called, I promptly responded at the beach or under coconut trees where little black pigs rushed in, grunting, to pick up. I joined queues with several kids to fetch water from the only village well not far from the fetish shrine. That was before I became enlightened.

In my current state of enlightenment, here is my sorry situation. Literally, I still chop wood and carry water! This might represent your situation too! Today, I don’t live in a forgotten village or a slum. I live in a spacious house and appear to have all the trappings of civilization. If I’m to be judged by several standards, I would most likely qualify as a bit privileged. So why am I grunting over water and other matters now that Ghana is 53?

The truth of my existence with regard to water and toilets is no where far from the poverty-stricken village or slummy city suburbs. Today, I’m privileged to have a water-closet toilet. But, I don’t have water! What is the use of water-closet when you don’t have water to flush? Answer: The stuff remains in the closet! Yucky! They say that everyone has a right to a decent toilet. But without water, you can’t have a decent toilet.

Since January 4 this year, my taps have not run. My taps and bath-tub are home decorations, merely to remind me that I’m no longer in Ocansey Kope. But I am! Water is political; highly political. Months before the 2008 elections, it was announced that the water problem in my neighbourhood had been solved. With that pronouncement, water flowed regularly. Hurray! But not so fast! Soon after the elections, the water quickly dried out. I think we need to have elections frequently (annually?) to guarantee that our problems are paid the needed urgent attention.

In my enlightened state today, what has improved is that I don’t go out to fetch water, on my own tired old head. Instead, I pay someone to fetch water for me from a neighbourhood well. He joins a queue. Today, I have a bath-tub in my bathroom but I never use it for what the inventor had in mind – to be filled with water and laid in for relaxation. The well is the common denominator that links Ocansey Kope with my ‘enlightened’ life of today.

I used to buy water from 'Tutututu Boys' but have advised myself against what I consider to be a dangerous water shopping practice. I asked some of them, “What’s the source of your water for sale?” They just said something nonsensical and exclaimed, “As for you Madam paa!” Apparently, tutututu trucks are not photogenic. Not surprisingly, the Tutututu Boys resisted my attempt to take pictures of their ugly trucks. My deep thoughts of the sources of ‘tutututu’ water frighten me. I’m terrified to welcome poisonous water into my home. So now, I settle for the well water.

A year ago, someone dumped a certain something into my neighbourhood well so we abandoned it for a while, with disgust. But, without much of a choice, we’ve returned to the cursed well. We also haul water in Mills/Kufuor presidential gallons. Mine are blue, not yellow! Periodically, when I’m hard-pressed for ‘good’ water, I buy sachet water to contribute my own share of plastics into the already choked plastic wasteland called Ghana.

Throughout every year, several days are celebrated and I ignore most of them. But this year’s World Water Day hit me. On the Day, the United Nations Environment Program noted in a report entitled ‘Sick Water’, that "The sheer scale of dirty water means more people now die from contaminated and polluted water than from all forms of violence including wars."
What a frightening observation!

Our rivers are dumping grounds for waste. We drink water from these rivers either treated or untreated. Yet, it is said that water is life. To mark World Water Day of 2010, I share the following poignant quotations as food for thought.

In an assessment of America’s water resources, Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th President of the United States, wrote the following: “A nation that fails to plan intelligently for the development and protection of its precious waters will be condemned to wither because of its short-sightedness. The hard lessons of history are clear, written on the deserted sands and ruins of once proud civilizations.” We know that our rivers are dying. By our actions, we are contributing to their death. Once they die, rivers do not resurrect. Hmmm!

Here is a quote from the United Nations Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights: “Water is fundamental for life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a healthy life in human dignity. It is a pre-requisite to the realization of all other human rights.” Really! So the human rights of those of us who are water-deprived and remain stuck in this troubling predicament are being violated by Ghana everyday? Wow!

I must sue the Ghana Water Company and its partner, Aqua Viten Rand for their unique impudence to bill me every month (without ever failing) for services they do not provide. My sister/friend, Nana Oye Lithur, please come to my rescue. I have a serious case of human right violation.

Finally, here is something profound for all the Bible folks, especially, those at the centre of Ghana’s super-Christian pretentiousness. In the Book of Revelation 8:10-11, John the Apostle who truly carried Christianity like a mighty cross, wrote: “The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water—the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.” Truly, water is life! For Ghana to survive and thrive, our water and sewerage quagmire must be resolved – by any means necessary.