Out of Africa
It is 3 a.m. and we are awakened by the Imam’s call to prayer being broadcast from the village mosque’s
loudspeaker system. The season is Ramadan, and the local Muslims are very persistent in their first of
five calls to prayer for this day. As a Christian, I can appreciate their religious dedication, even if it does
interfere with my American sleep habits!
We are in the northern part of Ghana, West Africa, in the city of Yendi, which is very close to the border
of the country of Togo. After 17-plus hours of flying from the states, and then 13-plus hours on the
road, we have finally arrived at our destination. It is the rainy season, so this landscape sandwiched
halfway between the tropics of the southern coast and the aridness of the northern Sahara is actually
not too unpleasant. It rains about every other day, and really the only inconvenience caused by the rain
is that the electricity goes out. Even though this is a city of approximately 70,000 people, most of the
population still lives in mud huts, and life here is the same as it has been for many, many generations.
Goats and chickens are literally running loose everywhere, which means that goat and chicken
droppings are literally everywhere, as well. There is a public water supply, operated by the Ghana
Water Company, Ltd., but at the compound where we are staying, water is supplied by wells our hosts
have drilled and tested. I am happy to report that the well water meets most of the primary and
secondary drinking water standards in the United States, so we had no qualms in using it.
Our 19-member mission team was sent here to work for a few weeks in a new middle school whose
emphasis is on teaching science and technology. As part of our time here, we also visited rural villages
to teach hygiene and nutrition, and witnessed the drilling of one well in a village by the Rural Water
Development Program (RWDP) of Ghana West Africa Missions (GWAM). Readers may remember that
the AWWA awarded its prestigious Award of Merit last year to GWAM for its work in providing safe
drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people in this northern region of Ghana. The RWDP has
been so successful that guinea worm, a debilitating waterborne parasite, has been all but eradicated.
The RWDP is successful in other ways, as well, in that when it is not drilling new wells, its crews are
performing maintenance on existing wells and pumps so that people will not have to return to fetching
water from contaminated sources.
Our mission team consisted of a number of families, as well as some individuals and college students
from Harding University in Searcy, AR. Much of our time was spent working at COSTECH, the new
College of Science and Technology. The school just opened this year with 50 boarding students all on
the 7th grade level (COSTECH is called a “college” because the students are all boarding students). Plans
are to add grades every year until the institution reaches the university level. Since most of the students
at COSTECH had never experienced science “with their own hands,” we helped each student perform
his/her first science project.
As one who does water treatment and distribution for a living in the states, I was able to slip away for an
afternoon and visit the local Yendi Water Treatment Plant. The concept of water treatment and
distribution is quite different here than what we are accustomed to in the United States, but that being
said, there were still many similarities. The Yendi plant is a surface water facility with a two-pump
intake structure built on the Dako River. Water is pumped to one of two sedimentation basins where
lime and alum are added for coagulation of the sediments. From there the water flows to one of three
filters, then to hypochlorite disinfection and ground storage, then ultimately to the distribution system.
While in our way of thinking water distribution involves transmission lines, mains, meters and customers
that pay a monthly water bill, the emphasis in northern Ghana is just to produce enough water to supply
the various water faucets scattered throughout the city. People then fetch water from these faucets for
use in their own homes and huts. I did not see one single water meter while there, an indication of the
poor local funding for the operation and maintenance of the treatment facility. Apparently the only
revenue stream afforded to the facility is support from the national government to pay for the
electricity, chemicals and operators. It was obvious that very little funding was dedicated to
maintenance and depreciation. All control valves for cleaning the basins and the filters were manual,
and filter backwashing occurs once every two to three weeks. The maximum capacity for the plant was
approximately 600,000 gallons per day.
It was explained to me that obtaining local funding for improvements to the system would be very
difficult, if not impossible. The majority of the populace lives well below the poverty level, supporting
themselves through either subsistence farming, marketing of miscellaneous goods in kiosks outside their
homes, or odd jobs. Sending these people a monthly water bill would be out of the question! Still,
though, I encouraged the Director of the local water district to seek ways to obtain local revenue to
improve his system and thereby improve the quality of life for his citizens. I grieved for the people
working for this water utility, doing the best they could with what few resources they had. It made me
realize what our own systems might look like should the revenue stream from our users be interrupted.
Ironically, there are businesses in town that provide very good quality drinking water in bottles or 500
milliliter bags. We grew very accustomed to using these bags for our drinking water while we were in
the field. Bottled soft drinks were also readily available and were used extensively.
Rural water development in the northern regions of Ghana has come a long way in the two decades.
The efforts and results have not gone unnoticed. The government in Northern Ghana is still a tribal
system of Chiefs, and the head one of them all, who is called the Regent, expressed his appreciation to
us in many ways. Even though he and most of his people are Muslims, they recognized the
humanitarian efforts of the church to improve life in this region, and so the Christians and Muslims in
the north enjoy a very peaceful coexistence. Now with the construction of this new science and
technology school, improvements in the education of their young people can also be made a priority.
Another facet of our involvement on this mission trip was to conduct the first ever teacher’s workshop
held in the northern regions of Ghana. Nearly 100 teachers attended the two-day training led by my
wife, Tammy, who works as a school administrator here in the states.
Even with all the improvements that have been made in Northern Ghana over the years, life there is still
not what any of us in the states would call “easy.” Fortunately, Ghana is not in a part of West Africa that
has been affected by the ebola virus, but we still had to be vigilant to guard against whatever microbes
were there. After just a couple of weeks, we were exhausted and returned to the states with a renewed
appreciation for the “modern” conveniences we so often take for granted. The Ghanaian people are a
tough class of people who have endured generations of hardships and adversity, so much so that I’m not
sure my old body could survive long in that environment. Good water and good education are key
elements to improving life there, and we were proud to have been a very small part of the effort to
develop these resources for them.
Perhaps you would like to help in these efforts in Ghana. While it is not the goal of this article to
compete with AWWA’s official charity, Water For People, I would be remiss if I didn’t at least just
mention that for just $35 per month, you can fully support a student at COSTECH. Other sponsorships
also are available and gifts are tax-deductible. If you are interested, just email me and I can put you in
touch with GWAM so that you can explore your options. Or, if you would rather go through Water For
People, that certainly would be a noble way to help in many areas around the world. Your support can
make a big difference, and it is appreciated.
Daniel K. Dawson
d.dawson@cablelynx.com