Bonyanu (N/R), Aug. 20, GNA - Les than 40 per cent of the residents of Central Gonja District, in the Northern Region, have access to potable water whiles the remaining 60 per cent compete with cattle for dammed rain water.

Many of the residents Central Gonja also rely on unhygienic, discoloured and muddy water. The district has a history of being a guinea worm infested area in the Country.

Mr Issifu Salisu Be-Awuriba, Central Gonja District Chief Executive (DC= E) made this revelation to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, when the Tamale Rotary Club donated items worth GHC5,000 to flood victims at Bonyanu, a fishing community in the district.

The relief items include used clothing, shoes and blankets. He said the young district, which forms about 12 per cent of the Northe= rn Region, needs support to complement its effort of providing quality water to avert an outbreak of water borne disease in the district, especially during the raining season.

The DCE said the areas inability to have potable water was due its low water table, adding that, 93We managed to drill bore holes but we did not reach water at most of these place".

He said although the government, through some interventions, was assisting the district, there are still more communities in the area that need partnerships with Non-governmental organizations and Corporate institutions to salvage the situation.

Recounting some of the effect of the flood, a year down the lane, Mr Be-Awuriba said it was the first catastrophic environmental calamity, which displaced about 35,000 people while 8,811, households were affected. He said 26,822 farmlands were submerged, 65 schools collapsed, 15 boreholes were destroyed, 1,109 livestock were carried away while some 50 culverts were washed away.

Mr Be-Awuriba observed that 93the flood has brought hunger and poverty to the affected communities, rendering most of them homeless and bringing economic activities to a halt.

He said the assembly needs about GH¢5 million to resettle the displaced people and to rebuild the collapsed school blocks. Mr Alhassan Jebla Ziblim, Vice President of the Tamale Rotary Club, who presented the items, said the gesture was to assist the victims to prepare for the fishing and farming season. He said the club, which was established in Tamale since 1971, had over the years rendered humanitarian services to deprived communities in the Northern Region and beyond. Mr Rene Dogbe a past President of the club advised the communities to relocate to safe grounds to prevent the community being submerged by floods= .. Mr Willian Kugblenu, Chairman of the Bonyanu Flood Committee, who received the items, thanked the club for the assistance.