For the inhabitants of Madina - Accra and its environs, it must have been quite a shock to their system hearing the sound of water rushing through their taps and actually seeing water pouring from their spigots continuously, uninterrupted for a few hours in August.
Such a sight had never been witnessed for about three months. That the area faces a water challenge is well - known and documented. Indeed, what had come to be considered as normal service within the final couple of years of Pres. Kufuor's reign was the flow of water for about six hours on a certain day every two weeks. Miraculously and thankfully, the interval was shortened to one week just before the 2008 elections till about a month into this year. Since then, there has been no pattern to the distribution of water in the area with the days of distribution changing without notice, the hours of supply altering drastically and the intervals in between the supply getting longer and longer. But the experience in the months leading to August took the problem to another realm altogether hitherto not experienced; weeks after weeks without a single drop of water from our taps.

That there is no regular supply of pipe-borne water is challenging enough. But the truly frustrating aspect of the situation is the uncertainty or the not knowing!

Back in the Rawlings era and for most of the Kufuor presidency, the taps were not flowing every day but at least, there was certainty! If the interval was one week, then one week it was and household could plan their chores around it. So what has changed over the course of this year? Of course there was a general situation when one of the Weija Machines broke down earlier on in the year which affected the supply of water to all parts of Accra for a while. But for Madina and its environs, the inhabitants are none the wiser concerning their peculiar situation. Proper information flow does not translate into water in the homes but it does offer households knowledge to search for alternatives. Beyond a better information management, what consumers really demand is for the problem to be solved.

As already mentioned, in August (when this article was originally composed), the miracle of miracles occurred! We really had water flowing through our taps! It was just for two or three days in the whole month but at least it was something. The tide of destiny was blowing our way for a change or perhaps the unknown officials in charge had suddenly realised Madina was part of Accra and Ghana for that matter. Alas we seemingly had jubilated too soon because since those extraordinary two or three days, normal service has been restored - our taps are running silent again.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it is the not knowing that is really frustrating. What changed that period? What indeed are the factors that determine when and for how a community gets water? Who indeed are the decision makers? Why can a community have uninterrupted supply of water throughout the year and another have less than a week accumulated supply of water in that same period? Can the Adenta - Madina water situation be solved at all because in all honesty, the situation is getting worse?

The stakeholders - the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ghana Water Company / Aqua Vitens Rand, etc need to be up and doing and get us clean hygienic water in our homes on regular basis. Surely, this is not too much to ask.

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