World Vision drills first borehole in the Abodobi Community

My name is Lucy. I am a cassava dough trader in the Abodobi community, Fanteakwa District. I am married with 10 children. My husband and I have a small cassava farm. My work involves harvesting cassava, peeling them, washing them and taking them to the mill to be ground into dough. The dough is then put into sacks to drain the water. It is then sold to market women as cassava dough mostly used to cook local delicacies.

In Abodobi, where I live, the main source of water was a small contaminated dam. We fetched water from this dam for cooking, drinking and cleaning. This caused our children to get sick frequently with waterborne diseases such as guinea worm, typhoid and diarrhea, among others. I am glad that, thanks to God, our children survived it all.

The contaminated community dam. Photo by Joseline N. Annan/World Vision

During the dry season, the dam dries up, making my children and I walk about six kilometres (6Km) in search of water. There are times that it takes almost a whole day just to get five (5) gallons of water for domestic use. On one occasion, I left home at four o'clock to fetch water from the dam and returned at one o'clock in the afternoon with only two and a half gallons.

Days like those, I couldn’t go and help my husband on the farm and the children end up going to school so late.

As a community, we kept appealing for help from the local government authorities.  Then one day, I don’t know what happened, but the next thing I knew, World Vision staff were in our community telling the community that Accra Brewery Limited (ABL) has agreed to partner with World Vision to drill a borehole in our community. It wasn’t long, and true to their word, we saw huge trucks that we had not seen before in the community. Before we knew it, we had a borehole.

Lucy and her family. Photo by Joseline N. Annan/World Vision.

For the first time in living memory, we were able to fetch clean water in our community. Our children are able to fetch water within a few minutes and then go to school. It’s been three weeks now and none of the children have fallen sick. I am so happy because I can now wake up early to fetch water, get the children to school and still have enough time to go to the farm to help my husband and get back when the sun is out to sell cassava dough to market women.

“On behalf of the community I thank World Vision Ghana and Accra Brewery Limited for supporting us in drilling our very first borehole in Abodobi community. God bless you both.”

 A child excited to drink the first flow of water from the bore hole constructed by World Vision in partnership with Accra Brewery Limited. Photo by Joseline N. Annan/World Vision.

World Vision is currently constructing 9 boreholes in the Fanteakwa District to provide clean water for over 4000 children and their families.