Ghana is paying dearly for not taking drastic action to curb the activities of Fulani herdsmen, as they have not only become a security menace but now a health threat as well. According to some health workers and community volunteers in the Northern Region, in addition to the threat they pose to agriculture and security, the Fulani herdsmen were also contributing to the spread of the guinea worm disease, as a result of their failure to adhere to measures instituted to control the spread of the disease. A nomads, the herdsmen drink water from various dams and ponds as they move from place to place in search of land for the cattle to graze and this to a large measure has exposed them to the disease. A spokesman for the agency charged with the control of the disease in the region told the Daily Graphic that when infested, the nomads in turn contaminated water bodies which they came into contact with. He said these Fulani herdsmen, together with their flock, walked through and bathed in the water bodies, regardless of their health conditions, and any attempt to stop them from polluting the water bodies was met with violence. '"They are so fierce and armed that if you attempt preventing them, they might hurt you," a community worker lamented, adding that the Fulani herdsmen were so stubborn and armed that they were unwilling to accept any directives as to how they should conduct their lives. "For me, because I see the water being polluted, I always boil and sieve the dam water before drinking it," he said. Other residents stated that not all the herdsmen were involved in the contamination of water bodies as some others who had lived in Ghana long enough did their best to respect the customs and practices of the people. Kadir Abudu, a Fulani man who herds his cattle in Koblimahagu, a suburb of Tamale, said no member of his family had ever contracted the disease. "We have stayed here for long and we understand and speak the language of the people. Sometime back the health personnel provided us with cloth filters and educated us on the disease but now we are able to source clean water from nearby homes,” Abudu further stated. When contacted the National Programme Manager of the GWEP, Dr Seidu Korkor, confirmed that activities of the Fulani herdsmen posed a threat to the eradication of the Guinea worm disease in Ghana. He explained however that the measures instituted under the GWEP were potent enough to minimise the dangers posed by migratory populations. "We have a co-ordinated effort towards ensuring that from the dams to the homes, people adopt practices that protect them from being infected by the disease," he noted. Dr Korkor said the preventive efforts began from the dam side, "where we make sure that people with suspected cases do not go near water sources". "In some cases, when we realise that a particular water source has been contaminated with the disease, we use chemicals to steriIise the water. "At the homes, we have thought people how to treat water before drinking and we have also provided them with various types of water filters.” The programme manager further said some community volunteers had been employed to move around the communities to detect suspected cases and take them to the containment centre for observation and the necessary attention. "We also encourage people to report early when they see signs of the disease, particularly blisters," he added. In the face of these measures, the question is: How possible is it that the activities of the Fulani herdsmen would not pose a threat to guinea-worm control? In response, Dr Korkor explained that if the Fulani herdsmen failed to filter or treat water they drank or if they stepped into water bodies when they were already infected, then this made it difficult for the control programme to achieve total success. He therefore entreated the government to take some pragmatic action to control the activities of these herdsmen. As of the end of 2009, only 242 cases of the disease were recorded, a significant improvement over the I989 figure of I89,000 when the eradication programme began. Every effort must therefore be made to consolidate this achievement, because a single act of re-infection of a water source could start a whole new outbreak of the disease. Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana