Residents of Nkrankrom in the Sunyani Municipality of the Bono Region are drinking polluted water from a river that passes through the area which is polluted by a refuse dump located at Adomako near Sunyani.
Water plays a very important role in the lives of human beings and its quality cannot be compromised.
One of the objectives of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 6 is to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030.
However, the situation is different at Nkrankrom, a farming community with a population of about 600 in the Sunyani Municipality.
The source of drinking water for the community, River Sunyani, is being polluted by the waste disposal site at Adomako near Sunyani.
In Ghana, close to six million people representing 22 percent rely on surface water to meet their daily water needs, leaving them vulnerable to water-related illness and disease.
The liquid waste from the refuse dump washes down into the river and subsequently moves down to Nkrankrom where the residents use it for domestic purposes and other chores.
The Chief of Nkrankrom, Nii Lankwei Odartey II, who is not happy about the situation took the news team to the riverside to have first-hand information about the situation.
Nii Lankwei Odartey II expressed his worry about the situation and called for the relocation of the refuse dump site at Adomako a suburb of Sunyani.
Nii Odartey II noted that several appeals made to the Sunyani Municipal Assembly for the relocation of the refuse dump are not yielding any positive results.
“We have called on the Sunyani Municipal Assembly on several occasions to relocate the refuse dump from where it is located now because it keeps polluting the water we drink but nothing is being done about it. This is not the only community that depends on this water. There are many communities dotted along the river who depend on this river,” Nii Lankwei Odartey II stated.
He urged the Municipal Assembly as a matter of urgency relocate the refuse dump.
The Assemblyman for the Nkrankrom Electoral Area, Hayford Kumah, told Citi News that he has raised concerns about the issue at several Assembly meetings but the promises made are yet to see the light of the day.
An effort to talk to the Sunyani Municipal Assembly on the issue was unsuccessful.
The Assembly also has no Municipal Chief Executive as the former MCE, Mrs. Evelyn Kumi Richardson has been appointed as the Bono Regional Minister.