Editor's Note: Kirsten Tuhus is a former teacher at the Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center where she worked with our Lake Washington Watershed Interns. She left the program in 2008 so that she and her husband could pursue their dream of working with the Peace Corps. She still corresponds with the interns and former students at Seattle's Van Asselt Elementary School. Below is one of her letters to the interns which she graciously allowed us to publish. If you'd like to follow Kirsten's adventure, check out her blog at →kirstenandjj.blogspot.com.
Hello Interns,
If a community wants a borehole, they must raise 5% of the cost (about $2,000) and organize a committee of community members who will be responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the borehole. Several European aid organizations give funds to the Ghanaian government to help pay for the rest of the cost. Once they have raised the money, a hole is dug with some kind of hole-digging machine and the water is tested, though I'm afraid I don't know exactly what they test but I imagine it looks at things like hardness and heavy metals. Assuming the water is OK, the rest of the borehole is built and people have a fresh clean supply of water! Hooray! As far as I know there are not any significant water quality issues that arise with boreholes. Sometimes they run out of water more quickly than expected or the pumping mechanism fails and the community doesn't have the funds or the know-how to fix it.
Dirty Water
The real water quality issues arise when people drink from the lakes and rivers. Near our training site there was a town that had suffered a serious cholera outbreak not too long ago. They had put their garbage dump right next to the river and lo and behold, the river became contaminated. Sanitation is a huge issue throughout Ghana. In many areas there simply are no toilets so people just poop wherever. It rains and that poop ends up in the surface water, which people drink and then this can cause diarrhea, dysentery, schistomaniasis, and any number of other health problems.
Water Conservation
In terms of water conservation, I know of no better water conservers than the Ghanaians. I think if Americas had to carry all the water they used on their head they too would conserve their water. Running water can be found in the bigger cities and towns and I imagine they thus use substantially more water. The tap water in these areas is not to be trusted as there are not really government standards for treating the water as far as I know. As far as wastewater treatment goes all I have to say is what wastewater treatment? In towns and cities you get to see all the poo and pee and garbage streaming through the gutters alongside the road with no covering or protection against falling in. (I had the pleasure of falling into one of these holes and soiling a shoe. Shudder.) And as I mentioned before, in the villages people just go wherever, and though you don't really see and smell streams of it, the associated health problems are certainly present.
Two Countries In One
On a side note, Ghana is really like two countries--the north and the south. The south is much more of a tropical climate, is very lush and humid, has two rainy seasons per year, grows things such as cocoa, bananas, oranges, etc. is also much more westernized and prosperous. The north is savanna, has only one rainy season, is very dry, grows things such as millet, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and shea nuts (for shea butter) and is much poorer and less developed. Water shortages are much more likely to exist in the north where the dry season runs from about October to May (almost exactly opposite that of Seattle). It literally does not rain at all during these months. And it gets up to like 120 degrees so you can imagine how quickly water evaporates (when I first moved here I was surprised to discover that I wasn't sweating but now my theory is that I sweat a lot but it dries up as quickly as it appears). People really suffer towards the end of the dry season because they harvested their crops back in September or October and many run out of food and money to buy food. In most of Ghana there is no irrigation for farms (as well as no farming machines), which is pretty shocking when you think about it. They rely entirely on nature to give their plants what they need, and thus some years their harvest is very bad. In the Upper East region where I live there are a few places where the government irrigates and so people can produce more food, but if someone wants to farm on this land they have to pay the government a lot of money that they can't afford. I think the government might open up the irrigation waters at some point to everyone, but they are not open right now when farmers would like to use them. The conversation I had with my Ghanaian friend about this issue was a little confusing because of the language barrier.
So that's a brief overview of some of the water issues here. I'm looking forward to learning more about it and sharing it with you all. Again, let me know if you have any questions about anything.
Happy New Year!
Kirsten