Apetewusu Water Project

-

In 2012, I co-founded an NGO called Bak2Afrika (officially registered as "Bak2Afrika Organization") with a friend named Kwabena Yeboah.  I lost contact with Kwabena shortly after, but he did his best to keep the brand alive.

Recently, circa mid-2025, I unexpectedly crossed paths with him in Accra.  We both saw that chance meeting as a sign to get back on the grind with B2A.  And to kick off this new, we're embarking on what has been dubbed the Apetewusu Water Project.

ABOUT APETEWUSU

Apetewusu is a remote village in the Eastern Region.  I've been around Ghana, and in this case I'm not using the word "remote" loosely.  Apetewusu is really out of the way, about 15 minutes, through the bush on motorcycle, from the nearest paved road.

In a country like Ghana, these kinds of places lack access to amenities.  The Gateway to Africa has modernized in recent years, but there are still forgotten communities out here.

The residents of farming villages located deep in the bush, like Apetewusu, are usually relegated to the lowest end of the economic spectrum.  So the government isn't compelled to spend big money, outfitting the village with amenities.  I'm not one of those people who's against bush life and think the city is always better.  Living in a place like Apetewusu can have its benefits.  But being devoid of water definitely isn't one of them.

The only time the villages have an abundance of water available is during the height of the rainy season, but harvesting it can be very difficult (and expensive).  During the dry season and other times of year, water supplies become low or nonexistent.

When its flowing, villagers harvest water from a nearby stream.  That option is far from ideal, as people who regularly consume from that waterbody can catch river blindness.

There's a well near the stream, which relies on overflows from the waterbody, which is healthier to consume from since the water is filtered through rock.  But this well has been more or less condemned, besides surrounding terrain being such that water from the stream is often blocked before reaching it.

WHAT WE CAN DO TO HELP

This is where we hopefully come in.  The goal of the Apetewusu Water Project is to dig a borehole in the village that's deep enough to accumulate water regardless of what the time of year it is.  Moreover, it'll be located in the village center, not near the stream, so residents won't have to walk nearly as far to fetch it.  Water is weighs a lot, and manually transporting, which is primarily a female's responsibility in Ghana, is very burdensome.

The site, at the village's center, where B2A will be constructing the new borehole.

I don't want to make this post too long.  So if you want more details about this campaign, please take time to peruse this PDF.  Donations to the Apetewusu Water Project can be made through GoFundMe or one of the options listed on the Bak2Afrika website.

CONCLUSION

I'm a strong advocate of borehole construction, even on a personallevel and even if you live in a house in Ghana that already has pipes.  Being without water is no joke and something that many foreigners never experienced.  Maybe if you're such a person, you can still imagine how difficult life is for the residents of Apetewusu.  But the good news is that concerned netizens can help by donating and getting the villagers the borehole that they need, all for a total project cost of less than $6,500.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Don't Be Afraid of Fraudsters in Ghana (Part 2)

-
Most Ghanaian fraudsters aren't bad people.  The likes of romance scammers may have ethical issues when it comes to the pursuit of money, but they usually aren't the type of people you would describe as the epitome of evil.  They aren't the types of hardened criminals you more commonly find in places like the United States. AMBITION & SURVIVAL IN GHANA In anthropology, there's this concept called cultural relativism .  As a (cultural) anthropologist, one's job is to study foreign cultures by actually living within them - as would a native - for an extended period of time.  One thing I've learned living in Ghana is that people want and need money just as they do stateside, but the access to that type of cash just isn't here.  For instance, the government of Ghana doesn't have the wherewithal to borrow trillions of dollars, as its American counterpart does. In the U.S., young, disenfranchised men who want to make money like grown-ups tend to get into e...
Read more

Ruminations from Tamale

-
Image
I’ve spent practically all my time in Ghana in southern parts of the country, i.e. the Greater Accra, Central and Eastern regions.  The former two border the Atlantic Ocean or, as it is more specifically called in this part of the world, the Gulf of Guinea.  The Eastern Region is a bit more to the north, being the one I prefer out of the three due to its greenery. Some years ago, I also spent a couple of months around Kumasi, i.e. in the Ashanti Region which is, in a way, further north than the Eastern Region though still in the southern half of the country. I long fantasized about coming to Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region.   There were a number of times throughout the years when I was supposed to come up here for one reason or another, but those trips never materialized.   It is widely understood that Tamale is different from places like Kumasi or Accra, which are more or less similar, so I longed looked forward to seeing the North. Recently, I fina...
Read more

Images from Aylos Bay Garden (June 2025)

-
Image
The Lake Volta, running from the Adome Bridge to Akosombo in the Eastern Region of Ghana, is the most-beautiful place I personally know of.  This area is also illustrative of some of the contrasts you come across in this country.  One one hand, you have these really exotic hotels and lodges.  But nestled in-between are residential areas that leave something to be desired in terms of development. Aylos Bay Garden Restaurant & Lodge is an establishment I've been familiar with for years.  I'm friends with one of the proprietors - Kwame Ayim, aka "Papa Water" - and went to check him about a tourist site he more recently opened on nearby Atakwame Island, which he owns.  So this was more like a business than leisure trip.  But still, I decided to snap a few pics overlooking the lake: You'll notice that none of those pictures are of the interior of the establishment.  In the past, Kwame told me that I shouldn't film inside, out of respect for patrons' pri...
Read more