{"id":103751,"date":"2025-11-18T08:06:41","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T08:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=103751"},"modified":"2025-11-18T08:06:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T08:06:41","slug":"poisoned-water-broken-promises-nanton-zuos-long-fight-for-one-safe-drink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=103751","title":{"rendered":"Poisoned water, broken promises: Nanton Zuo\u2019s long fight for one safe drink"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>7 Minute, 43 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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For more than 30 years, the people of Nanton Zuo in northern Ghana have lived with one painful truth: their only source of drinking water is slowly killing them.<\/p>\n

More than 5,000 residents \u2014 children, farmers, pregnant women, and the elderly \u2014 depend on a polluted dam contaminated with human waste, animal droppings, agrochemicals, and thick layers of mud. The water is brown. It smells. Yet it is all they have.<\/p>\n

\"Poisoned<\/figure>\n

Health workers describe the situation as a silent emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are dying from within. What we need is not sympathy; we need action. Our people are dying slowly because we are not a priority,\u201d community leader Fuseini Salifu told JoyNews.<\/p>\n

\"Poisoned<\/figure>\n

A Dam of Disease<\/strong><\/p>\n

The JoyNews investigation \u201cPoisoned Water \u2013 Paying Dearly for a Basic Necessity\u201d revealed shocking laboratory results: extremely high levels of E. coli and Salmonella, bacteria linked to diarrhoea, kidney complications, typhoid, and life-threatening infections.<\/p>\n

Senior Urologist at the Tamale Urology and Modern Surgical Centre, Dr Akis Afoko, issued the most frightening warning:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community risks dying from within if nothing is done. The water is toxic, but people drink it because they have no choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since that investigation, the situation has not improved. Cases of diarrhoea, typhoid, skin diseases, and other serious complications have increased.<\/p>\n

Teachers say many children miss the first hours of class because they spend long mornings fetching water, especially during the dry season. Parents describe raising their children \u201cin survival mode.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Poisoned<\/figure>\n

Northern Regional Manager of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church, Mr Ransford Kwabena Bayisi, confirms the impact: \u201cSome days, nearly half of the children in a class stay home \u2014 they are sick, or they have gone to look for water.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that at the AME Zion Primary School in Nanton Zuo, teachers often face half-empty classrooms.<\/p>\n

\"Poisoned<\/figure>\n

\u201cSometimes it is discouraging. If half of the students are absent, the teacher becomes reluctant to teach because they will have to repeat the lesson the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Growing Community with No Water System<\/strong><\/p>\n

What began as five small villages \u2014 Chanzieni, Baglahi, Womali, Pagzaa, and Gbabshie \u2014 has now grown into one large community. But the water supply never grew with it.<\/p>\n

The dam was never protected, fenced, treated, or expanded. Today, Nanton Zuo is a growing settlement without a single safe drinking water point.<\/p>\n

Farmlands are drying up. Young people are leaving for Kumasi and Accra for menial jobs. Community leaders say frustration has pushed some youth into petty theft in order to survive.<\/p>\n

Across Nanton Zuo, nearly every household battles water-related illnesses \u2014 abdominal pains, chronic intestinal problems, typhoid, diarrhoea, and skin infections. Yet the town has no public health centre.<\/p>\n

\"Poisoned<\/figure>\n

Residents travel 10\u201315 km to the nearest public facility, especially the Tamale Teaching Hospital, or they resort to the Tamale Urology and Modern Surgical Centre \u2014 a private specialised facility that does not treat common illnesses.<\/p>\n

Because of this gap, over 80% of households self-medicate, often buying incomplete doses of antibiotics from drug stores. Between 80% and 90% of residents delay treatment until symptoms worsen.<\/p>\n

Families spend an estimated \u20b5200\u2013\u20b5450 monthly on medication \u2014 a heavy burden in a subsistence farming community. During peak diarrhoeal seasons, cases surge sharply, though official data is unavailable.<\/p>\n

For many families, sachet water is the only safe option. But a household of six, like that of Afa Sulley, needs \u20b512\u2013\u20b518 daily, equal to \u20b5360\u2013\u20b5540 monthly or \u20b54,300\u2013\u20b56,500 yearly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a family of six needs \u20b512 to \u20b518 a day for sachet water, how can we manage? It is not realistic for us,\u201d said Mr Sulley.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you drink the water, you pray not to fall sick. When you buy clean water, you go hungry that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Women and girls bear the hardest burden. In the dry season, they walk 3\u20135 km and spend 2\u20133 hours fetching water.<\/p>\n

Mr Bayisi said the impact is severe because school absenteeism rises by 30\u201338%, girls aged 6\u201315 miss 6\u201310 school days per month and women lose 10\u201314 productive hours weekly.<\/p>\n

Why the Boreholes Keep Failing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the years, Dream Village, Green Gold Social Enterprise, and other partners drilled more than 15 boreholes, according to residents. Every attempt failed.<\/p>\n

For the first time, a water engineer explains why. Water resources development engineer, Fadlu Rahman Mashod, says the problem lies deep underground.<\/p>\n

\"Poisoned<\/figure>\n

\u201cThere is very little groundwater. Most of the time, when you drill, you won\u2019t find water. The rocks here are mudstone and shale. These rocks do not allow water to enter or be stored inside them. It is not only Nanton Zuo. The whole area has this problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said finding groundwater would require complex studies, advanced technology, and deeper drilling \u2014 which may still fail.<\/p>\n

Because boreholes do not work, families now buy water from private suppliers at \u20b53.50\u2013\u20b55.00 for 25 litres. Most households cannot afford this. With government support, the price could drop to \u20b51.50\u2013\u20b52.00 \u2014 enough to save lives.<\/p>\n

Experts interviewed for this investigation point to three workable solutions, which include a community Water Treatment Plant \u2013 a system that removes turbidity, bacteria, and chemical pollution, Deep, High-Yield Boreholes, which will use advanced geological mapping and professional hydro-surveys, and low-Cost water testing as a permanent system to help residents detect danger early, build local data, and hold authorities accountable.<\/p>\n

\"Poisoned<\/figure>\n

One of the most practical and affordable ways to monitor water safety in low-resource communities is the Portable Microbial Test Kit. The kit is extremely simple to use, where residents collect a small sample of water in a sterile bottle, add a reagent, and wait 24 hours. If the water is contaminated, the liquid changes colour instantly, giving a clear warning signal.<\/p>\n

Because the kits require no electricity, no laboratory, and no technical expertise, they are already used by district environmental health officers in some parts of Ghana. They can also be stored for several months without refrigeration, making them suitable for rural communities with limited infrastructure.<\/p>\n

This type of low-cost testing allows residents to detect danger early, track contamination trends, and build local evidence to demand urgent action from authorities.<\/p>\n

Northern Regional Water Quality Assurance Manager, Sulemana Alhassan, stressed: \u201cYou must turn water into data. Data forces action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Afoko added that while deep underground water exists, drilling one or two mechanised high-yield boreholes could significantly reduce waterborne diseases.<\/p>\n

After months of meetings, Nanton Zuo adopted a three-part survival plan: government or partners should subsidise water, allowing private suppliers to sell safe water at affordable prices, the dam should be desilted, dredged, strengthened, and fitted with simple purification systems, and the community should be integrated into national water projects<\/p>\n

Though Nanton Zuo receives heavy rainfall, the dam cannot hold water because it is filled with mud and its banks are weak.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t rebuild the dam, this community will not survive the next 10 years,\u201d an elder told JoyNews.<\/p>\n

Long-Term Hope: The Tamale Water Project \u2014 A Promise Still Waiting<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many believe their true rescue lies in a major government plan \u2014 the Tamale Water Project, announced in 2020.<\/p>\n

Government documents show the project will build a 135,000 m\u00b3\/day treatment plant at Yapei to serve 680,000 people by 2040. It will supply dozens of communities, including Nanton Zuo.<\/p>\n

The project costs US$223 million. The engineering designs and Value for Money Audit have been completed, but actual construction has not started.<\/p>\n

In 2020, then-President Akufo-Addo cut sods for three major water projects in the north, including this one, raising huge hopes as he campaigned for re-election.<\/p>\n

Five years later, the Tamale Water Project has not produced a single drop of water.<\/p>\n

During the 2026 Budget presentation, the Finance Minister announced construction would begin in 2026, extending the wait.<\/p>\n

Another community member, Feruza Mohammed , says the delay is painful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the dam can\u2019t help us now, but only a major project like this can secure our future. It must not become another broken promise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nanton Zuo wants to be fully integrated into the project. For them, this is not just infrastructure \u2014 it is a chance to end over 30 years of suffering.<\/p>\n

\"Poisoned<\/figure>\n

A Human Rights Crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Access to clean water is a basic human right. Yet thousands in Nanton Zuo still drink from the same place where animals defecate and people wash.<\/p>\n

Ghana has committed \u2014 through the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement \u2014 to ensure safe water for all. But communities like Nanton Zuo remain forgotten.<\/p>\n

Dr Afoko says the cost of inaction will be heavy: More children falling sick. More youth are migrating. More families are sinking into poverty. More preventable deaths.<\/p>\n

Nanton Zuo is preparing a petition to state agencies, demanding: urgent subsidised clean water, rehabilitation of the dam, and fast integration into the Tamale Water Project.<\/p>\n

Documentaries and investigations \u2014 including the JoyNews series \u2014 have shown that this is not a local issue. It is a national emergency.<\/p>\n

The people of Nanton Zuo do not want charity. They want justice \u2014 the right to drink water that will not kill them.<\/p>\n

One elderly woman, Zakaria Fati, said, \u201cWe don\u2019t want to suffer like this anymore. We just want clean water. We want to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Poisoned<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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\"PoisonedFor more than 30 years, the people of Nanton Zuo in northern Ghana have lived with one painful truth: their only source of drinking water is slowly killing them.<\/p>\n

More than 5,000 residents \u2014 children, farmers, pregnant women, and the elderly \u2014 depend on a polluted dam contaminated with human waste, animal droppings, agrochemicals, and thick layers of mud. The water is brown. It smells. Yet it is all they have.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12714,2047,12715,10,9,1907,12716],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broken-promises","category-hp-news-9","category-poisoned-water","category-politics","category-popular","category-regional","category-safe-drink"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/103752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}