The Chief and people of Bulingin in the Buli Electoral Area of the Wa West District are crying over inadequate sources of potable water, which has compelled them to rely on dugout water for domestic purposes.

They said the community of more than 1,000 residents depended only on two boreholes, which had led to a struggle and competition over those sources of potable water.

Hayiri Filkaatey, the Chief of the community, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said they were left with no option than to compete with animals at the dugouts for water.

The situation, he said, was a source of worry as it could lead to residents contracting waterborne diseases like cholera and typhoid fever.

“The community is big but we depend on only two boreholes. Even the school has no borehole. We dug small dugouts at the valley and that is where we are fetching from,” the Chief said.

He said women had to queue for several hours at the borehole, even at night, before they could get water to fetch, which sometimes resulted in a fight.

Bodaba Edward, the Youth Secretary of the community, told the GNA that the scuffle for water could pose a threat to teaching and learning as schools reopened.

He said the situation could increase the rate of teenage pregnancy as the girls could use fetching water at the borehole at night as an excuse to visit men.

He said, Edward Laabiiri Sabo, the District Chief Executive, had promised to provide the school with a borehole since 2017 but was yet to fulfil that promise.

He appealed to the Government and the Wa West District Assembly to go to the aid of residents by providing them with additional sources of potable water to ameliorate their plight.