Tracka Diaries

Episode 1

Kukuo, a small farming community in Ghana’s Northern Region, faces a stark reality: the absence of clean, reliable water. This fundamental human right, enshrined in SDG 6, is a daily struggle for Kukuo’s 40,000 residents, hindering their potential and threatening their well-being. BudgIT Ghana’s Tracka team visited Kukuo, hoping to empower the community with tools for civic action. Instead, they encountered a community grappling with a fundamental survival crisis.

Kukuo’s only water source is an overgrown, exhausted waterhole near Ghana Senior High School. Travelling to this supply consumes hours daily, resulting in lost time from farming, schooling, and other essential activities. Women and children, who generally deal with more social inequities, bear disproportionately more of this burden, either forfeiting school or business to fetch water. The unclean water also exposes the residents to avoidable diseases such as typhoid and cholera. 

There is no doubt that the water crisis stifles Kukuo’s economic growth. Local businesses and farming, the community’s lifeblood, struggle without a reliable water supply. This hardship perpetuates a cycle of poverty and despair. Kukuo’s predicament is not merely a local tragedy but reflects a structural breakdown in governance. Access to clean water is a fundamental right, yet years of neglect have left communities like Kukuo struggling for survival. During BudgIT’s visit, residents voiced frustrations about the water crisis, abandoned projects, and inadequate infrastructure, highlighting a disconnect between electoral promises and lived realities.

Tracka empowers communities with the information they need to hold leaders accountable. However, systemic change requires more than grassroots action. The government must prioritize Kukuo’s water crisis, investing in long-term solutions like completing abandoned projects, installing mechanized boreholes, and extending water pipelines. This isn’t merely a moral imperative; it’s a core responsibility of local and national institutions.

This community needs collective action from everyone; Kukuo residents must keep speaking up so that their requests for infrastructure and water are not ignored. Media outlets, advocacy organizations, and civil society organizations must collectively raise awareness of this problem and encourage quick legislative action as well as long-term fixes. Local and foreign development partners should work together to offer sustainable solutions that will safeguard the community’s future in a sustainable manner, such as community-led water management systems and solar-powered boreholes.

Goal 6, which focuses on providing clean water and improved sanitation for everyone, is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that the Ghanaian government has ratified. However, if communities like Kukuo continue to be plagued by cycles of neglect and deprivation, these pledges are meaningless. The Kukuo water crisis is not a singular problem; it is a component of a broader national issue in which marginalized people are consistently neglected in pursuing development goals. Meeting Kukuo’s needs is more than just a moral duty; it is also about promoting fairness and guaranteeing that all residents, no matter where they live, have the resources they require to live in dignity.

Without a doubt, BudgIT Ghana’s Tracka initiative has demonstrated that communities can demand the governance and service delivery they are entitled to when they are empowered with knowledge. But information alone is not enough. Leaders must listen, act, and deliver. The people of Kukuo are asking for a fundamental human right—clean water. The question remains: will their call be answered, or will Kukuo become another forgotten community?