Nyeko Village in Ghana's Northern Region faces acute water shortages every dry season. The nearest reliable source of water for six months of the year is a surface pond some three or four kilometres distant. Women and children are forced to walk to this muddy pond two or three times per day to fetch water to cover their family’s most basic drinking needs.
Nyeko has a small primary school block. There are over 600 students and only four teachers. The nearest junior secondary school is some five kilometres distant and the high school another twelve over bad red dirt roads. In the history of the village, only one individual, a young woman, has ever completed high school. Children’s lessons are often interrupted when they are forced to walk the many kilometres for water or fall sick because of a contaminated drinking supply.
In the weeks before I left Ghana in June 2008, I sat down with Nyeko’s water committee, made up of men and women community leaders. They laid out these challenges and suggested that a rainwater harvest tank attached to the school block would take significant pressure off the community’s dire water situation. At least their children would be able to concentrate on their lessons and have a safe and sustainable source of drinking water just outside the classroom door.
Tuma Kavi Development Association, a local NGO, has helped a number of other communities build these tanks and I have seen firsthand the incredible difference they make in the lives of literally hundreds of students. So I told the students at Nyeko that I would endeavour to raise funds for the project when I returned to the land of plenty. Should we secure the necessary resources, Tuma Kavi will implement things on the ground.
The tanks have a 30,000 litre capacity, are attached to the school's eaves troughs, and easily fill up with free and clean water during the region's rainy season. The contractor Tuma Kavi works with uses local labour to build the structure and teaches community members tank construction techniques and necessary repair knowledge. Of all the development projects I witnessed in Ghana, these rainwater tanks were among the most sustainable with a strongest cost/impact relationship. A cost estimate from the local contractor indicates that materials, labour, and cost of community training comes to a total of 4,918 Ghana Cedi, or about $4,500 Canadian. Should this pilot fundraiser for Nyeko be successful, we hope to expand to other needy villages in the region.
Check out this link for a photographic journey through the building of a rainwater harvest tank. This tank, similar to the one proposed for Nyeko, was built by Tuma Kavi in the neighbouring village of Zoggu.