Water Shortage Hits Korle Bu

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Created on Thursday, 29 May 2014 00:00

Water Shortage Hits Korle Bu

29 May 2014

An acute water shortage has hit three wards of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for the past two weeks, forcing patients and nurses to shuttle between the affected wards and the Maternity Ward to meet their water needs.

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Although hospital authorities maintain that private water suppliers are providing water for the facility, evidence at the Surgical Ward, as well as the Orthopaedic and Accident wards, suggests the contrary.

When the Daily Graphic visited the Surgical Ward last Tuesday, the washrooms had been closed down and a member of staff (who refused to give her name) indicated that water had not been flowing at the ward for the past two weeks.

“For the past two weeks, we have not had water supply and so we have even locked up all the washrooms,” she said.

Indeed, when this reporter asked to use the washroom, she was denied access and instead directed to the Maternity Ward to use the public washroom there.

The visit by the Daily Graphic followed a complaint by a patient (named withheld) on admission at the ward who had sent a message on his social media platform that the ward had no water.

He wrote, “Please help me get this message to the Ministry of Health, as well as the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, that I have been on admission at the Korle-Bu Hospital for some time now and water to bath or even use in the washroom is not there and the whole place is smelling. We use toilet roll to clean our bowls after meals and use the same bowl for meals again. Please help with the information, thank you.”

Further checks at the Surgical, Orthopaedic and Accident wards revealed that there were no tanks to store water for patients to use.

The situation had compelled orderlies to go round the hospital to fetch water with barrels to be supplied to the wards.

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Mr Mustapha Salifu, debunked rumours that the hospital was facing challenges with water supply.

He said although the hospital had experienced some challenges with the flow of water since last Monday, it had resorted to the services of private water tankers to provide water for the hospital.

He said it would be irresponsible on the part of the hospital to turn down patients because of the lack of water.

Temporary challenges

Mr Salifu said it was unfortunate that some of the departments of the hospital were affected by recent developments at the health facility and said the management had not received any report on the water shortage from any department.

“Yes, there may be temporary challenges, but we have not received any report. It’s possible that water may run out in some departments but our engineers are always monitoring the situation, so that when the water level goes down, they call the tanker services to come and supply,” he explained.

Source: Daily Graphic