First published on April 11, 2017
I pass by this pond any time I head to the beach at Prampram, and I always notice the activities around it – people bathing, swimming, washing, and others fetching water.
These activities never caught my attention until I had to help a little girl, who was about 6 or 7 years old, repack her sponge, soap, and other items that were almost spilling out of the polythene bag she had them in. She was juggling these items while balancing a bucket of water on her head.
After that encounter, I kept asking myself if I had done enough. Shouldn’t I have carried the water home? But again, I don’t think it sinks well with a parent when their little girl returns home from bathing with a dreadlocked man carrying her water. Plus, it’s a daily aid, and I’m not going to be there every day to aid her. I watched her for a while as she staggered through the dark path.
I have seen this before at Ayigbekofe – a fishing and farming community near Dowhenya. And I have seen stories about the same occurrences at Ningo and other small communities, where children have to swim across rivers and ponds to get to school. What beats my mind is that the roads in Prampram are asphalted.
Prampram is not a small community. It has Ghana’s first police station, making it a historical town. The immediate ex-MP was one of the longest-serving members of Ghana’s parliament and has served on several committees. He was also a minister and regarded as a senior member of his circle.
Prampram is economically active, featuring several beach resorts and pubs, and it’s also becoming a real estate hub due to its proximity to the sea. The town will soon host an international airport (proposed, at least).
The encounter with the little girl made me notice the large, numerous polythene tanks (Water storage tanks) hanging above buildings and the long line of yellow gallons chained to these tanks in the town. If you can’t afford the expensive clean water, you will have to depend on the “portable pond.”
It is absurd, disgusting, and unthinkable that after 60 years, my resourceful country will still have its citizens walking knee-deep into polluted ponds and rivers to get water for domestic use. It doesn’t only happen in Prampram. It happens all over the country.
Just yesterday morning, I heard on the radio that the government wants to spend about GHc1.5 million to renovate and upgrade bungalows for the first and second ladies. Yet, they can’t provide clean drinking water for the money they lavish.
Below are pictures of the “portable Prampram pond.”
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