Water shortage hits Korle Bu

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.

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 smells. 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.

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