The thirst is real!

How do you survive six months dry?

Author

Chale News
September 27, 2024

Ah, Friday! The day we trade in our ‘please find attached’ for ‘let’s get attached to the weekend!’ The grind was real, but we survived another week.

What’s in store for today’s newsletter? Let’s find out and kick off this weekend with a bang!”

  • National: Why cancel the board when you can just fix the lights? Afenyo-Markin says teamwork’s the plug to solving ECG’s billion-cedi mess!

  • National: Accra’s water supply is ghosting us like that one friend who only texts when they need something.

  • National: Mortuary workers pause their strike, giving the government two weeks to meet their demands or face the heat again.

  • National: The Catholic community loses a gem as Brother Stephen Domelevo, presenter of 'Catholic Digest.

  • Fact of the Day: There’s a small but mighty bone in your ear.

  • National: Ghanaian kids are about to get their own Ghana Card!

  • Entertainment: NPP’s Salam Mustapha isn't buying the NDC's 24-hour economy policy, calling it a "senseless" approach to youth unemployment.

  • Education: UNIMAC new school year plans get canceled thanks to strikes,

  • Economic: BoG’s got a golden strategy

  • Crime: Former Black Stars player, Samuel Inkoom allegedly defrauds couple of $8000

  • Economic: Every Ghanaian is estimated to owe GH₵22,076 as Ghana’s debt piles.

QUICK BYTE

  • So, ECG’s Board Chairman, Afenyo-Markin, says dissolving the board over mismanagement claims is like throwing out your phone because the WiFi’s down—way over the top. He’s calling for teamwork, not board firings, to fix the GH¢9.7 billion loss issue that’s got everyone heated. Want the deets in full? Check out the Deep Dive section.

  • Accra’s taps are playing hide-and-seek again, and it’s not cute. Faulty pumps at key stations are doing the most, leaving people out here paying crazy cash to buy water from private sellers. GWCL’s like, "Chill, we’ve got new pumps coming soon!" but with water showing up once a week (if you’re lucky), folks are low-key losing it. The water situation is so wild that some Dansoman fam have been going dry for six whole months. SIX. The worst part? Now everyone’s out here coughing up 70 cedis to water tankers just to take a shower. Is this our villain origin story? Get the 411 in the Deep Dive section below

  • So, the Mortuary Workers Association of Ghana (MOWAG) hit the pause button on their strike—for now. They’ve handed the government a strict two-week deadline (October 10th, mark your calendars!) to sort out their salary arrears, supply some much-needed PPEs, and clear 500 new hires. Yeah, it’s getting serious. The workers aren’t backing down either. They’ve made it crystal clear that if the government doesn’t fix this mess in two weeks, the strike is back on, and this time, no more Mr. Nice Mortuary Worker. Read more

  • Starting October 7th, the NIA is coming through with Ghana Cards for kids aged 6 to 14! They’re rolling out registration at schools, so parents don’t have to jump through a million hoops to get their kids signed up. Alfred Gazari, the NIA's Deputy Director, is hyped, saying this is all part of the big plan to make sure every single Ghanaian is on the national database. Feels like a Pokémon challenge: Gotta register 'em all! Read more

  • The Catholic Archdiocese of Accra is mourning a big loss—Brother Stephen Domelevo, the senior brother of former Auditor General Daniel Yaw Domelevo, passed away on September 26th. Known for his energetic Saturday morning show "Catholic Digest" on GTV, Brother Stephen was the go-to guy for making Catholic values not just informative but actually fun to watch (yes, really!). His passing is hitting hard, especially for the Catholic community, and the tributes are rolling in. Read more

FACT OF THE DAY

❝

The smallest bone in your body is in your ear, and it’s called the stapes. This little champ is smaller than a grain of rice—just 0.09 × 0.11 inches! It’s busy working behind the scenes, turning vibrations into sounds while you live your best life.

  • Vera, all fired up about her beliefs, goes out to join a Democracy Hub protest. Next thing you know, she’s arrested and dragged into court, but she’s four months pregnant. You’d think that’d be one of the first things her lawyers mention during the bail hearing, right? Wrong. The Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah Yeboah, isn’t too thrilled about it either, calling out the legal team for not playing their cards right. He basically went, “Why didn’t you tell the court?! That’s like, super important!” Now, imagine the judge, sitting there all serious, thinking, “Hmmm, remand or bail?” Basically, had the lawyers mentioned the bun in the oven, the court might have been all soft and “aww,” but instead, Vera gets stuck remanded. Read more

  • Ghana’s got gold, and lots of it—but as the Bank of Ghana (BoG) knows, with great wealth comes great responsibility. So they’re now digging deep with their Responsible Sourcing Programme. It’s about securing that bling in a way that won’t trash the environment or fund shady activities. Think of it as the “green” way to get gold—minus the guilt trips. They’ve also rolled out a "Gold for Oil" initiative where Ghana swaps gold for petrol. Basically, BoG’s got two options: trade the gold directly for oil or sell it to brokers and use the cash for oil imports. Either way, the goal is clear: boost Ghana’s economy, keep it sustainable, and make sure no one’s messing up Mother Earth in the process. Read more

  • If you were all geared up to start classes at UNIMAC on September 30th, bad (or maybe good) news—your vacay just got extended! The university had to hit pause on the new academic year because some major campus players are on strike, like the Senior Administrators (TUSAAG), Senior Staff Association (SSA-UoG), and the University Administrators (GAUA). They’re battling over working conditions, and until that’s sorted, we’re all in academic limbo. No word yet on the new reopening date, but the school promises to keep us updated once the strikes cool down. The good (bad) news? If you’re signing up for short courses or special programs, those are still a go. Read more

DEEP DIVE

Why Dissolve the Board When You Can Just Fix It?

You’re on your favorite streaming site, halfway through a fire episode, and boom, ECG strikes again with the lights-out move. Now, imagine someone comes along and says, “Yo, the only way to fix this is to fire the entire crew at ECG.” That’s basically the situation we’ve got here. The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) is out here like, “Nah fam, these board members gotta go. Y’all are racking up Ls like it's a TikTok challenge—GH¢295 million to GH¢9.7 billion in losses?!”

Here comes Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the ECG Board Chairman, saying, “Yo, relax! Kicking us out won’t fix the problem. It's not that deep.” According to him, the real fix is getting all the major energy players together like a squad planning a weekend trip—there’s gotta be more coordination, less finger-pointing, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll all get to binge-watch without that ECG interruption.

It's kind of like when your group project is falling apart because no one knows who’s actually doing the work. Instead of kicking everyone out, maybe, just maybe, the real solution is calling a team meeting, splitting tasks, and getting stuff done. Afenyo-Markin’s basically saying ECG doesn’t need new members—it needs better teamwork.

And honestly, who’s got time for this “blame game” anyway? It’s like when your group chat is full of accusations about who flaked on the plans, but no one’s talking about how to actually fix the problem. Afenyo-Markin’s like, “Bro, let’s just focus on the real issue here. The lights! They’re not lighting!” Guess he’s not wrong. Read more

Accra’s Water Woes

You wake up in Accra, go to the bathroom, and—surprise!—the water’s ghosted you again. No texts, no calls, nothing. You’re just standing there like, “Bro, did I do something?” Well, apparently, it’s not personal—it’s the pumps. According to Mr. Charles Tulasi from Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), the pumps that keep Accra’s taps flowing are breaking down faster than your will to adult. But don’t worry, he says they’ve ordered new ones, and they’ll be up and running by the end of October. Right in time for who knows what—maybe our patience to finally run out?

Until then, Accra peeps are out here battling for water like it's the Hunger Games, with private water tankers coming through like the VIP section at a club—but at what cost? Residents in places like Dansoman and Achimota are out here paying up to 70 cedis for water (School junction and East Legon Hills people who spend 120 cedis on water can’t believe this part😂😂). Not because they’re living that luxury life, but because their taps are literally taking a siesta. Like, how are we supposed to hydrate and thrive when we can’t even get water without playing budget roulette?

And let’s not even talk about how these pump breakdowns are dragging our wallets. It’s like, first it’s the electricity bill, now the water bill wants to show us flames. Paying for something that should be flowing freely feels like getting stood up on a date, but you still have to cover the tab. GWCL keeps telling us, “Relief is on the way!” but it’s hard to believe them when we’ve been left on read for months. Like, yo, where's the water, fam? Can a city catch a break?

The worst part is, this problem isn’t new. Some Dansoman folks have been without regular water for six months. That's longer than some Netflix subscriptions! People are so frustrated they’re literally pleading with their taps to start behaving. One resident from Achimota spilled the tea, saying they get water once a week—like, just enough to make you think it’s getting better before the taps pull a disappearing act again. Buying water has become a regular thing, but it's not even cute. It’s expensive, and at this rate, we’re all going to need side hustles just to afford to stay hydrated. Read more

Moral of the story: Accra’s water situation is so messed up that if water were a person, we’d all be in therapy right now trying to figure out why they keep abandoning us.

NEWS SOURCES

Today’s stories are curated from: