Water shortage hits Achimota hosp. as patients fetch water with buckets

Patients admitted at the Achimota government in Accra are left to go fetch water for their own use and treatment as water supply to the facility has been cut for days now. It comes in the wake of calls for regular handwashing with soap and water as part of precautions against the deadly coronavirus.

According to some patients on admission, they are made to leave their sick beds to and go fetch water from a polytank stationed somewhere on the hospital’s compound for their own use and for treatment purposes.

“The water has not been flowing since I was admitted here. Every morning I have to leave my bed, even though I’m very sick, to go and fetch water before I can get some to bathe or wash my hands,” one of the patients said on Thursday.

Another said: ” I’m even more concerned now because of the coronavirus issue and the need to wash our hands every time. We can’t even get water at the ward to wash our hands. It’s very terrible”.

An official of the hospital said the water supply from the Ghana water company has been cut for some time now. He said staff now rely on the limited water in the polytank and other means to keep them going. ” We are really concerned but there is very little we can do. We now rely on the polytank but it cannot be compared to having the taps flowing through”.

The development comes as the nation puts itself in readiness for the novel coronavirus they there be an outbreak.President Akufo-Addo in a national broadcast Wednesday urged Ghanaians to regularly wash their hands in order to keep themselves safe.