00:00Until recently, Lalia Abdelmoumin and her daughter had to walk to the well in Shishagu
00:06several times a day to fetch drinking water for the house.
00:11Once home, they had to set a fire and boil the water liter by liter.
00:17It was time-consuming but essential.
00:33Since last year, she has been going to their community's Bohol instead.
00:38There, she can source clean drinkable water.
00:42How has that become possible here in this community of Tamale?
00:46The Dutch company, Elmen 15, has launched a project to promote clean drinking water in northern Ghana.
00:54The local team is currently in Shishagu, near Tamale, inspecting the filters.
00:59The bio-system consists of four filters.
01:02We have the spin-down filter, we have the sediment filter, the bacteria filter, and then the carbon filter.
01:08Now, as you can see, this is water from a borehole.
01:12And then you take a borehole and you think you are taking a clean water.
01:17But actually, it is made up of fine particles called sediment that you cannot even see with your eyes.
01:24So with these filters, it traps all these fine particles.
01:27And then when the water comes out of the bio-system, it is very clean and safe and portable.
01:33Ghana's groundwater is becoming increasingly polluted.
01:37Garbage, pesticides and mining release a multitude of pollutants into the environment.
01:43Rain eventually washes them into the groundwater.
01:46A recent study shows that extreme rainfall in Ghana has risen by 23% in recent years.
01:54When it rains, all of these are carried by excess water.
01:59And they are supposed to go down and drain the groundwater.
02:04So the levels of these contaminants, sometimes the filtration process of the earth is not able to filter all.
02:12So they seep to contaminate the groundwater.
02:15In many regions of Ghana, waterborne diseases are among the most common reasons people are admitted to a hospital.
02:23To establish the water yielding capacity and to find out just how extensive water contamination is in northern Ghana,
02:31Element 15 ran tests in the boreholes.
02:34The water in Shisego was also tested at a laboratory in Tamale.
02:38The results show that the well water is heavily contaminated.
02:43The bacteria count for total coliform is 100 times higher.
02:48And for E. coli, 64 times higher than the WHO limits.
02:53The filtered water, on the other hand, is perfectly fine, says the testers.
02:58The unfiltered sample didn't meet the WHO's recommended guidelines for E. coli and total coliform and turbidity.
03:11But the filtered sample passed all for the recommended values.
03:15Since 2024, the company has installed 65 water pumps with filtration systems,
03:21granting nearly 1 million people in northern Ghana access to clean drinking water.
03:26To make sure the project remains sustainable long term,
03:30Element 15 has hired technicians from local communities to perform regular maintenance on the systems.
03:36So far, it's provided work for 11 technicians.
03:40And there are other positive effects as well.
03:42Boiling less water means using less wood and therefore less deforestation.
03:47People in northern Ghana have reduced CO2 emissions by more than 29,000 metric tons.
03:53The company can turn these carbon credits into cash by selling them to the government,
03:59which in turn trades them internationally.
04:02That cash will then be reinvested in the project reducing its dependency on donations.
04:08Technicians visit the villages regularly to replace the filters.
04:12Whenever a new system is installed, they explain to the residents how it works,
04:17and remind them to keep the area around the water sources trash free.
04:22And the presence of the land of the country has returned to the rural part.
04:27Who has given a benefit for children?
04:29To live in the country on the mountain,
04:31Because they've created their own students in order to make sense to live.
04:36And the time they look for the tourists and their lives,
04:37They don't simply go to their land.
04:38They don't pay attention for the money.
04:39And they take care of their children.
04:39If the people of the country and they do minds,
04:44They care for their children.
04:46They turn the50s.
04:49They're when they're the people who live in the country.
04:50They don't come to their homes.
04:51They don't really come to them during their families.
04:51for the company but it is a sustainable system that provides people in northern ghana with clean
04:57drinking water
