District Chief Executive for the North East Gonja District, Mohammed Musah Tinbwuu has assured that authorities in the district are working to provide potable water to residents.

This follows reports that residents of the community are competing with cattle for water due to the scarcity of the resource.

Mr. Tinbwuu said, "we've started piloting and we're currently piloting one at Lermu, a community in the district which is about 80% complete. Once it's successful, we'll try and replicate same in other communities," he said.

According to data from the Ghana Statistical Service contained in the 2020 Population and Housing Census, about 97% of households in the district use unimproved drinking water sources.

It is for this reason that the residents are, compelled to compete with animals for drinking water from fast-drying polluted streams.

This means more than 9 out of 10 households in this district use water that is prone to contamination with fecal matter.

Speaking to host Kojo Yankson, the DCE acknowledged the challenge, stating that serving communities with potable water has been a major challenge in the North East Gonja District, despite various attempts to deal with it.

"A lot of attempts have been made to provide the community with water. It started with the one village one dam (1V1D) project but all the dams dried up during the dry season with the exception of two that survived.

"We decided to find an alternative and what came up was the borehole. This also proved unsuccessful due to the nature of the land in the area," he said.

"Fortunately though, there are a number of water bodies that do not dry up, tap into these, process it, and supply to households," he said.

"So we are hoping that in the next few months, all things being equal, the contractor should finish with that and once it's successful, we can look for sources of funding to replicate it in other communities," he added.

Meanwhile, JoyNews checks with health authorities in the North East Gonja District have revealed that over 4,000 people in the district have been affected by typhoid due to the consumption of polluted water.