Social media (Twitter) went haywire yesterday, following the banner story of The Chronicle captioned “Beware! The Sachet Water you consume May Contain Shit.” Ghanaians expressed mixed reactions over the health alert raised by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).
Whilst others were utterly surprised over the development, others claimed to have been in the known. Others also described the headline by The Chronicle as ‘wild’.
Francis Kokutse, one of the respected senior journalists in Ghana, who writes for the Associated Press (AP), and was somewhat surprised this development had now come into the public domain.
According to Kokutse, who tweets @fkokutse, this menace was not only linked to the sachet water industry, but public water systems had been contaminated.
The AP journalist responded to the front page story of The Chronicle which was shared by the Twitter Handle of Accra-based Citi FM, saying: “It is sad Ghana just realised it. It is not just the sachet water.
Two years ago, researchers around the globe found that public water systems had been contaminated.”
He asked: “So why do we pay FDA and Standard Authority? And district assembly workers?”
@Knorrteikincaid asked Ghanaians: “Y’all now realising? adding that he knew this faecal matter existence in Ghanaian sachet water five years ago. Pharm Okuda mentioned that, he had known this public health challenge for ‘ages.’
Oheneba who tweets @osigma0005, lauded the Ghana Statistical Service tweeting: “GSS is clearly being very proactive in making this known. Kudus to them. Now over to @fdaghana and @GhanaStandards.”
Hunter Johnson, who bears the tweeter domain name fogjohnson, raised questions about regulatory bodies mandated to check the quality of water. Another tweet which was credited to @blacksnow 09 argues that this is not the first time this public health alert has been raised.
He said: “They have said this over and over again. What action are they taking now?”
But, a visibly worried man who tweets @evans fianu said: “E hard o, so what am I supposed to do? Where are the agencies, water and sanitation ministry, etc?”
AnkuPaakwasi, who tweets @Thestingy billionaire, who could not believe The Chronicle story tweeted:
“May contain shit? Is the water not filtered under machines? Or it’s just a deliberate and wicked act? Enlighten us.”
@Doreen21915512 also expressed misgivings about the red flag raised by the GSS survey report, saying: “Is it all the satchet water that are contaminated or some. Please, I want to know which ones are safe to drink #CitiCBS.
In a tweet which could be described as hopelessness, Purple Haze said: “We dey drink shit since, no be today…”
