THREE YOUNG men who were said to be in their early thirties, died in the Ashaiman Irrigation Dam on Tuesday evening when they went there to bathe and wash their clothes, as the whole town was brutally hit by acute water shortage since last Thursday, April 15, 2010, which the early settlers of the town said had never been experienced before.

Two of the deceased persons could not be readily identified.

The third person was said to be a resident of Kaketo, an Ashaiman suburb, a father of two and a famous truck pusher in the area.

According to eyewitnesses' accounts, the supposed truck pusher arrived at the dam at 11am with a heap of clothes to wash because of the water crisis.

As soon as he finished washing and drying his clothes, the eyewitnesses recounted, the young man lay in the sun for quite awhile, and when he woke up, he did a few pushups, stretched his limbs, and went into the water to perhaps wash down.

An eyewitness narrated that because there were a lot of people bathing in the water, the young man moved farther away, “but after sometime, when almost everybody had come out of the water to relax, some of us realized the guy had not come out so we raised an alarm as it was getting late, with most people deserting the dam for their various homes”.

According to sources, as soon as they raised the alarm, a young heavily-built man, whose name they gave as Alhaji, succeeded in bringing out the truck pusher.

Not too long after the body of the Kaketo resident had been drawn from the water, the eyewitnesses said they heard people yelling from another part of the dam and when they rushed to the spot, they said, “We saw two young male bodies floating on the water and quickly, Alhaji and one other guy went in to bring the bodies to the bank”.

The Ashaiman Lebanon Police, the eyewitnesses said, reported at the scene to carry the bodies away. Nonetheless, when DAILY GUIDE followed up at the Police Station, the personnel on duty disclosed that it was rather the Central Police in Ashaiman that reported at the scene and took the three dead bodies to the Tema General Hospital mortuary.

Relatives have reported at the police station to identify the bodies.

The water crisis in Ashaiman has brought several activities in the area to a standstill.

From Inusa Musah, Ashaiman