The Illness You Can Drink: Waterborne Disease in Rural Ghana
Published on HivePostify by @wellsforall · Mon Aug 10 2026
An illness you can drink
Mostly, when we talk about water, we talk about survival. In many parts of rural Ghana, water is the source of quiet harm.
You cannot see it. No headlines. No outbreaks. Diarrhoea again. A tummy ache that refuses to pass. Fever returns a month after recovery. Medicine purchased. Child recovers. Then the cycle begins once again... Because nothing has changed about the water.
Clean drinking water is what the real fight is about. Not walking distance. Convenience. Health. Survival.
The number we cannot ignore
WaterAid states approximately 4,000 children younger than 5 years old die annually in Ghana due to diarrhea caused by unsafe water, lack of proper sanitation and poor hygiene practices.
4,000 children. Every year. Due to water. Bacteria. Parasites. Contamination. All removed almost completely with a protective water source. 'Preventable' is a difficult word to swallow. However, it may be the best news there is. Preventable is exactly what it says – the number can decrease.
How water harm is created
Here is how unhealthy water directly harms individuals: People draw their drinking water from open streams, dug wells and stagnant ponds in communities lacking a protected water source. All three types of sources are exposed to all forms of contaminants in their environment (animal excrement; human excrement; agricultural runoff; etc). When flooding occurs, as they increasingly do, contaminants increase greatly.
These sources carry pathogens (organisms) causing diarrhoea, typhoid, cholera, dysentery and parasitic infections. While a healthy adult experiencing such an infection will likely experience a few miserable days, these same pathogens pose serious threats to young children whose bodies are rapidly growing and can become severely dehydrated within hours.
Furthermore, repeated infections create compounding problems. A sick child can't digest food effectively, resulting in weakened immune systems that result in the next infection becoming worse. Repeated exposure to unhealthy water does not merely produce individual illnesses – it creates chronic deficiencies in a child's ability to grow and develop normally.
Water is the root of problems
Everything else develops from roots.
One community eleven months apart
While statistics give you a sense of the scope of the issue. One community gives you the whole picture.
Before: families obtained their drinking water from an uncontrolled and contaminated water source - visible on the left side of this post's cover image. Children bathed and filled buckets from this source. The water was turbid, contained animal contaminates and was unsafe in all aspects. Sickness was a regular occurrence in this area. Budgeting money for medication was common among families while sicknesses were frequent enough that absences from school became common.
After: after eleven months of working together, the same community obtains its drinking water from a fully constructed borehole (well) with a protective system surrounding it. Drinking water runs through taps. Without concern for safety, children drink from the new water source. The patterns of everyday life - sick, treated, recovered, start again - begin to fade.
Families notice improvements in the smallest ways first. Fewer sleepless nights spent caring for a sick child. Fewer trips to clinics and hospitals for stomach-related ailments. More money available for other needs since less is spent on medications for treating stomach ailments. Children are more present during meals, playing time and at school.
The only difference made to this community was the water source. Yet that one change produced ripples throughout all areas of the community.
Why this is health and not just a water project
This is the one aspect of our work that we believe outsiders to the water industry need to realise.
By funding a borehole project, you are providing one of the least expensive yet most effective public health interventions available today. By providing access to clean water at the source of contamination you are removing the conditions that allow water-borne illnesses to occur - and doing so prior to the onset of those illnesses - eliminating the need for costly treatments and medications.
Healthcare professionals have understood this relationship between preventing illnesses at the source vs. Treating illnesses after they occur for decades: prevention at the water source always results in greater benefits than treatment after contamination has occurred both economically and medically. A borehole does not cure water-borne illness; it eliminates the conditions creating it.
Therefore, @WellsForAll provides education regarding hygiene practices and/or medical screenings for each borehole drilled.
Together, clean drinking water and educational programmes provide lasting protections against future illness for children and adults alike.
Hopful aspect
It could be argued that we should leave readers with a feeling of despair based upon that Number of 4,000 annual deaths related to contaminated drinking water. However this is not the correct perspective. The Number 4,000 is indicative of a solvable problem we currently have solutions to.
Each additional borehole drilled decreases this number – each community receiving a protected water source decreases this number by at least one.
There are multiple examples demonstrating this transformation occurring in communities across west africa - Twenty-five communities having undergone significant transformations in recent years and clearly demonstrating how "the illness you can drink is also the illness you can cure".
There is good reason to feel hopeful about this situation - and there is justification for continuing to build more.
How To Support Our Work
Donate directly:
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[Become a WellKeeper](wellsforall.org/wellkeeper); a monthly commitment that funds ongoing maintenance for existing boreholes: wellsforall.org/wellkeeper
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WellsForAll Africa LBG · Registered in Ghana, Reg. No. CG080641125 · Operating since 2022.
Water. Hope. Life.
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