An avowed member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region, Mr Lamtii Apanga has cut sod for the drilling of three mechanised boreholes in the district.
The communities set to benefit from this humanitarian gesture are; Pelungu, Zanlerigu and Asonge.
The Nabdam District is partitioned into three zones, namely the Zoliba zone, Sakoti zone and the Nangodi zone; with the aforementioned communities benefiting from Phase One of the philanthropic gesture.
Addressing the media on the sidelines of the sod-cutting ceremony at Pelungu, Lawyer Apanga, who is an indigene of the Zanlerigu community, disclosed that a total of ten (10) boreholes would be drilled across all the three zones in the districts, adding that the project would take place in three phases.
He said the drilling of the boreholes were occasioned by the fact that members of the Zanlerigu community brought the challenge of lack of access to potable water to his attention, when he visited the community in the run up to the 2020 elections.
He noted that the drilling of the boreholes would help improve upon the sanitation situation in the area and fight against diseases, as well as lessen the challenges the people go through.
“Sometime last two years, when we were going round for the political campaign to have our MP elected, we came to this community and the people of the community said that one of their major concerns is that they don’t have a good source of potable water, and that whenever the dry season is up, they struggle to have water, particularly for the women and the children, they have to travel long distances to be able to have potable water for their household items, for cooking and for taking good care of themselves.
So I felt that it was something that we needed to do. After all, water is life. Water provides a source of livelihood for people and, therefore, if we able to provide potable water, we can fight diseases, we can ease the burden and the challenges the people go through.
The school children will be able to wake up early in the morning, have access to water and prepare well to go to school, instead of traveling long distances to search for water,” he explained.
Welcoming Lawyer Apanga to his palace, the chief of the Pelungu traditional area, Naab Serik Soore Sobil IV, expressed gratitude to the philanthropist cum politician for the gesture, adding that the project would bring relief to his people. The traditional leader seized the opportunity to earnestly request for more of such developmental projects in his area.
“I think this is my dream come true. I have been looking for this opportunity for a very long time. Actually, that area of the market has no water source and I think this is a great gesture for me this afternoon. You were there yourself, you can even see that there’s no source of drinking water there.
They were even trying to pull me; others said bring it here, bring it there. That shows that they are too desperate to get this. So I think this is something that will serve the community. Thank you very much but we need more of such,” he said.
Having cut sod for the first phase, Lawyer Apanga said phases two and three of the project would take place in the Sakoti and Nangodi zones shortly.
From Elijah Beyeni, Nabdam
