UPPER WEST EXPERIENCES HARSH HARMATTAN WEATHER ...(PAGE 20)

Story: George Folley Quaye, Wa

"I have never regretted for being posted to the Upper West Region five years ago. The only period that I feel uncomfortable in this part of the country, is during the harmattan season.
Although I have experienced serious harmattan during my five-year stay in the region, never has it been so severe like this year."
These were the words of Mr Ekow Amega, a public servant at Wa, about the severity of the dry weather condition in the region.
During his annual leave recently, Mr Amega had to run away from the unfriendly weather in the region by travelling to southern Ghana, precisely Sekondi in the Western Region.
He carried along broken lips and a dry skin. After only three days, his situation changed with the little cracks on his lips and body vanishing with the speed of lightening, apparently as a result of an improved weather condition.
After two weeks stay in southern Ghana, Mr Amega decided to return to Wa, thinking that the weather had improved for the better, only to meet the severest part of it.
The above scenario is what residents of the Upper West Region are going through. The worse part of the situation is early in the morning. Waking up in the morning to prepare for work is hell. No wonder some residents including Egya Mbir have called it "Little Europe".
Workers report to work during this period of the year with some of them sometimes reaching their workplaces around 9 a.m. as a result of the chilly weather condition. People in this region have procured different kinds of jackets to face the weather.
Schoolchildren feel very uncomfortable when going to school very early in the morning. One could see students and children struggling to walk to school, especially students of the T.I. Ahmadiyya Primary and Junior High schools, who walk about five kilometres from town to the SSNIT Flats, where their schools are located.
Other children who face the same problem are the students of Dan-Ibu International School, whose school bus picks them as early as 6 a.m. when their parents are comfortably asleep.
"When will this weather change to save us from suffering?" one frustrated student of Dan-Ibu school asked this reporter.
It is hoped that God would soon listen to the voices of these little children by reducing the severity of the harmattan to its barest minimum.