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Water crisis in Dandafuri: Men struggle to find wives
● One of the non-functioning boreholes
Some men in Dandafuri, a township in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region are in a state of unhappiness over their inability to woo and marry women outside their community due to the water crisis in the town.
The community has five boreholes but none of them is functional and women have to travel a long distance to the next community to get water for the home.
This, according to the men the Spectator spoke to, ‘scare’ away prospective wives from other communities who rejects their marriage proposals with the inadequate supply of water as a reason.
“We’re in a difficult situation because of our water problem. When we propose to women outside the community, they refuses outright and would remark that ‘Dandafuri? No way; I cannot come and struggle for water everyday”, Mr Adamu Mahama, a community member told The Spectator newspaper during a community visit.
The Spectator observed that five nonfunctional boreholes were drilled by politicians without due consultation with the community, hence they were sited at areas with low water volumes, making it difficult to access water.
According to the Unit Committee Chairman of the community, Mr Sumaila Idris, most of the boreholes were drilled during the rainy season so much consultation was not done to get a good place to situate them.
He explained that one of the boreholes was even connected to solar but had not been functional in the last five years.
According to Madam Sadia, a woman in the community, they had to endure hours in queues at the only functioning borehole which had also broken down recently due to the pressure on it.
“We have the boreholes but you can pump forever and no water will come out; they are like white elephants because they are not serving their purpose so we mostly depend on rainwater during the rainy season.”
She said”: “even with the functioning one that has broken down, we sometimes go to the pump at 6am and return to the house at 10am.”
This situation, she said, was affecting their wards’ education especially females and younger children because the mothers and the older girls mostly went water hunting and return home late.
“By the time they go to school, it will be quite late because we come home late to prepare the smaller ones for school and the older females also help us to find water before they go to school”, she lamented and said the rainy season had been generous to them and lessoned their burden.
Even at the school, she explained that the absence of water affected good hygiene practices, such that hand washing was a thing of the past because there was no water for that.
The Chief of the community, Abdul Salam Issahaku sent an appeal to benevolent bodies to come and assist the community to fix the existing boreholes by drilling to the water table and become useful for the community.
From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Dandafuri
Ghana Tourism Authority is leading Ghana’s participation at ITB Berlin, which opened in Berlin with a vibrant national pavilion highlighting Ghana’s rich cultural heritage, tourism destinations and investment opportunities.
March 5 has been designated as Ghana Day, a special platform to promote Ghana’s languages, cuisine, Kente, festivals and business prospects to the global tourism community. The stand has already drawn strong interest with traditional arts and crafts displays, immersive multimedia presentations and popular Ghanaian snacks.
Seven private-sector players are exhibiting alongside government officials as part of efforts to deepen trade partnerships, expand market access, and attract investment across the hospitality, heritage tourism, ecotourism, and creative arts sectors.
Ahead of the official opening, the Ghana delegation also engaged young Ghanaian investors in Germany in collaboration with V Afrika-Verein and the Ghana Embassy, strengthening diaspora investment linkages and highlighting opportunities within the tourism value chain.
Ghana’s coordinated presence at ITB Berlin 2026 reinforces its strategy to position the country as the Gateway to Africa and a competitive destination for leisure travel and global investment.
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
