Getting a drink in Ghana

Lake Volta is Ghana’s largest geologic feature. It covers 3200 square miles and provides hydro-electric power to much of the country. From the dam its water flows down the Volta river to the Atlantic Ocean. Notwithstanding this abundance of water much of the water in Ghana is polluted to one extent or another.

One of the Church’s primary humanitarian aid focuses in Africa is on potable water. This is often provided by drilling bore hole wells in the villages. Once the bore hole is in place the people can pump potable water. People in rural areas walking from their homes to the well and back carrying water in buckets or pans on their heads are a common site.

The bore hole is a great place to meet friends and play

In the cities water is also an issue. When you eat at a restaurant and order water you will be asked “small or large?” That is an issue because your water is always bottled. One of the most prevalent varieties of hawkers on the street is the women selling water from pans on their heads.  Their water comes in two varieties, bottles, and sachet bags. The bottles come from two or three major distillers. The sachet bags apparently are much easier to produce and don’t have the level of quality control the distillers do. Our prior area medical adviser told us tests had been run on sachet bags and 80% of them contained “critters.” Missionaries who drink from sachet bags run the risk of getting illnesses we in the west thought no longer existed including cholera and typhoid, never mind dysentery, and diarrhea.

A large water, a small water, and a sachet bag. The Book of Mormon is there to compare size.

In our apartment we have filtered water. That which comes out of the regular tap has been filtered twice. That which comes from the smaller spigot with the apparatus under the sink has been filtered three times.

 In Salt Lake in the winter I can get cold drink just by letting the water run. Here the only way to get a cold drink is to refrigerate the bottles.

These are poly tanks for storing potable water. These three provide the water for all six apartments in our complex. The garbage cans are there to compare size.

We do have one other resource for storing water but we don’t intentionally drink that water.