WATER SHORTAGE; BIG BLOW TO STUDENTS IN THE EXAMINATION WEEK

 

I write to advocate for my colleague students and myself over the recent shortage of water at our various hostels. Life on campus is almost becoming

unbearable due to shortage of water being the basic need of every student. The myriad usage of water for domestic purposes and for emergency make water a fundamental need that needs to be satiated, therefore the shortage of water is posing some challenges which include; lateness to class, distortion of our itinerary, poor concentration in class, and a fear of affecting us against our examination timetable.

In recent times, students have to scavenge in search of water, hopping from one hotspot to another. And this is brooding more complications to our academics; for instance, a student who has a class at 6:00 am will have to wake up at dawn to queue up for water in order to get prepared for class and other domestic use like cooking etc. In a first come first serve queue, the latter student will definitely be late for class which is a serious breach to academic ingenuity.

Again, our itinerary for studies, cooking, and washing is disorganized due to the shortage. As students, we go to main campus to study in the evenings, prepare food after class and do laundry when necessary; all of these activities involve water therefore we tend to postpone or forgo some of these activities which affect us.

In addition, this leads to poor concentration in class, it is evident from how some of my course mates sleep in class because they have to queue at 3:00 am to get water. The hassle in getting water stresses us at dawn and makes us dull in class especially at early morning classes. While others are stressed, others leave class to go and fill their barrels and containers when they are hinted that the tap is flowing.

Lastly, end of semester examination is a week away from now, we fear the negative impacts these aforementioned factors will have as we prepare to write exams. It is obvious that examination requires enough preparations but the recent shortage of water is not helping students to have efficient preparations. 

In proposing solutions to the matters arising, I have contacted the GWCL and the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) to help offload their water tenders which is equivalent to 10,000 liters at an affordable cost. The water tender (10,000 liters) can serve a maximum of 2000 (5litre bucket) at a go. I therefore copy office of the SRC to contact their corporate partners, Academic chair to use their influence to fetch the concerned, Quality Assurance etc. to get involved and help absorb the cost for water to be supplied for this and the examination period. Looking at the way forward, I suggest that hostel managers and managers of GetFund should adopt alternative means to provide water with which drilled water with pumps will best fit.

Thank you.

JESSIE SASU ASANTE

SRC PRESIDENT HOPEFUL ’21.