New life in Asamposbisi

Nine year old Nsomah is one of the people whose life has changed since WaterAid and its partner Rural Aid helped build a new water supply in the Ghanaian village of Asamposbisi. Anna March tells the villagers' story.

Nsomah Umala lives in Asampombisi village, not far from the town of Bolgatanga in Ghana's Upper East Region, the poorest and most remote region of the country. Situated over 800km north of Ghana's capital, Accra, very little aid makes the long, hard journey to this region from the more affluent south.  And yet once you arrive there, the need for development is impossible to ignore.

Around 680 people live in Asampombisi, in mud houses scattered quite far apart so that in the rainy season they have space to grow millet and other crops around each home. In the long dry season, however, which lasts for well over half the year, the landscape is dusty and barren. Nothing grows and families endure a constant struggle to find water to drink.

Nine year old Nsomah can now drink safe, clean water from the WaterAid-funded handpump.

Credit: WaterAid / Jon Spaull

Until WaterAid supported a local Ghanaian organisation, Rural Aid, to help the community of Asampombisi to build a well, the community relied on water from a pond formed by a mud dam in a stream.

The water was dirty and contaminated and the women and children, including nine year old
Nsomah and her mother, would have to queue for hours waiting for water to seep up through the ground so that they could scoop it up a little at a time.

Nsomah recalls what it was like.

"Before we had the pump we went to the stream to fetch water. There were animals drinking there too. The water would hurt my stomach."

The problems were even worse at the peak of the dry season, when the stream dried up completely and people had to dig deep down to find any water at all. Not surprisingly, people in the village were often sick, especially the children.

Like many of her friends and siblings, Nsomah remembers falling ill,

"Before, I had diarrhoea and I had to go to hospital and stay there for five days. There were other sick people lying there and the doctors and nurses looked after us. It was big and strange and there were lots of people. I had to get injections and it was scary. I missed school while I was in hospital. I enjoy school so much. When I am older I want to be a doctor because I want to help other people who are sick."

Now there is a well in Asampombisi, dug by the community themselves and fitted with a handpump. The well is nearly 10 metres deep and even during the dry season yields enough water for everyone in the village.

Nsomah explains how her family has come to rely on this new, safe, water supply that is nearby,

"I have two brothers and my mother has a baby inside her who will come soon too. I hope she will have a girl so that when she grows up she can help me with the household chores. I sweep, wash the dishes and weave. When I am not here my brothers help with the sweeping. They fetch water for the animals while I fetch water for the family. I go to the pump four times a day and collect buckets of water."

Nsomah is just nine years old but even at such a young age she has already seen with her own eyes the difference in her family's daily life thanks to using this clean water instead of the dirty stream. "Now I'm pleased I don't have to go there any more, I never visit there. I am happy with the new water."

Nsomah's new little brother or sister, when they are born, will fortunately not experience the same hardships as the older children in Asampombisi. Now the village not only has a safe water supply but is also beginning to build latrines, again with WaterAid's support, so that families like the Umalas will have a safe place to go to the toilet.

Without even the most basic loo, people face year-round problems: in the dry season there is no undergrowth to provide cover and women in particular must either wait until dark or risk the humiliation of being seen.

In the wet season, meanwhile, heavy rains wash human waste into water sources and homes, which is not only deeply unpleasant but also a health hazard. A simple pit latrine can change all this.

Atolbangi Apasako is one of Nsomah's neighbours and her family is among the first in Asampombisi to build a latrine. She explains why she thinks it is worth the effort:

"I have lived here for 40 years. There have been no toilets here so we do 'free range' defecation. When we got good water, we then thought of sanitation. If we get toilets the waste won't be in the open as it is now. Now, flies land on it and then come and land on our food. We are one of five households building the first toilets in the village. It is a community here but other people visit. When I have the toilet I will have somewhere safe and private I can offer them to use."

Life in Asampombisi has changed dramatically since the well has been built. The people who live here are now able to take their future into their own hands, growing crops and weaving baskets to earn a little money that will help take them onwards from this first stepping stone out of poverty.

Nsomah's mother feels able to hope for a healthier, brighter future for all her children:

"When I had my first baby I had to use water from the stream, and the baby and I were always sick. I had to leave the baby at home while I went to collect water. My next baby is due next week. I don't mind if it's a boy or a girl. Now we can just come to the pump and there is always plenty of water."

Nine year old Nsomah can now drink safe, clean water from the WaterAid-funded handpump in her village.

Action alert

You might well be thinking that this is just one success story and how can we ever have an impact on the tens of thousands of other villages also in need of help? Of course, WaterAid relies on our supporters' generosity to enable us to work on projects like the one in Asampombisi. However, we also rely on you to help us lobby for policy change so that our work has a far greater impact.

By using what we learn from our own fieldwork, WaterAid works to influence governments and international organisations to convince them of the most effective way that aid money can be spent so that it really has an impact on the very poorest people.

Women like Atolbangi Apasako, now have more time to spend on other work like making baskets to sell.

Credit: WaterAid / Jon Spaull

We're asking you now to add your voice to ours and join WaterAid in lobbying the European Union (EU) to make a better job of coordinating resources to water and sanitation in developing countries.

The EU Water Initiative was launched in 2002 with the vital mission of coordinating funds going from EU member states to water and sanitation in the developing world. Four years on, however, not one single extra person has received safe water and sanitation as a result and in fact aid from the EU is becoming even less targeted and effective.

Bearing in mind that 60% of all worldwide aid originates from the EU, the potential for the EU Water Initiative is huge. But rather than seizing this opportunity to enter into meaningful dialogue with countries receiving aid, it is instead drowning in bureaucracy and bogged down in confusion. WaterAid is calling for a much tougher, more focused and accountable approach, to include:

• Measurable impact targets with regular progress reports
• A structured financial contributions system from EU member states
• Coordinated country dialogues to avoid duplication of aid
• Support to existing national budgets for water and sanitation instead of a central EU fund
• A commitment to ensuring these national budgets adequately prioritise water and sanitation
• WaterAid believes the EU Water Initiative is not a lost cause, but it has lost its way. We want to help guide the EU in making the right decisions that will really benefit those people most in need.

Take part in our latest campaign

Please support WaterAid by calling on the EU to radically reform the EU water initiative and save millions of lives. Make the Eurocrats turn on the taps! What is needed now is not just more aid for water and sanitation but, crucially, better quality of aid.

By filling in a postcard and returning it today, you can help WaterAid tell the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, what the problem is and what he should be doing about it! For more copies of the postcard please call us on 020 7793 4525.

Anna March is WaterAid's Development Manager, Private Giving.