By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Denugu (U/E), Oct 14, GNA- A six-seater biodigester water-closet toilet facility valued at AU$60,000.00 has been commissioned for the Denugu Health Centre in the Garu District of the Upper East Region to help improve healthcare delivery.
WaterAid Ghana, a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) focused organisation with funding support from the Australian Aid, provided the facility as part of its Integrated Sustainable WASH in Healthcare Facilities Project.
Ms Ewurabena Yanyi-Akofur, the Country Director, WaterAid Ghana, noted that access to WASH in healthcare facilities was central in the provision of quality healthcare services and resilient healthcare systems would prevent healthcare facility related infections.
However, she said, there continued to be a widening poor linkage between access to WASH services and healthcare service delivery especially in the rural and hard-to-reach communities posing health risks to the vulnerable especially pregnant women and children.
For instance, she said, in the West African Sub region, 312 million people representing 29 per cent had no sanitation facilities in healthcare facilities and described the situation as unfortunate and unacceptable.
She said for the country to achieve the Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals especially goals three and six which put emphasis on access to quality healthcare, and water and sanitation respectively, there needed to be strategic investment in providing integrated WASH systems in healthcare facilities.
The Country Director noted that apart from the toilet facility, WaterAid Ghana with funding from Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited, had also constructed solar-powered mechanised water system connected to the school, market and the health centre, while a double chamber incinerator was being constructed for the health centre with funding from Zochonis Charitable Trust.
“We believe that this will go a long way to establish a model for all healthcare facilities in this country.
“So, we want government to be able to integrate this model into the design of healthcare facilities in the country because a healthcare facility without WASH for health workers and patients is not complete especially if we want to achieve the SDGs, so we need to work together,” she added.
In a speech read on her behalf, Ms Bernice Owen-Jones, the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, noted that the project was one of 12 projects under the Commission’s Direct Aid Programme rolled out in 2021 and noted that the facility would contribute to improve quality healthcare delivery.
Ms Owen-Jones said statistics from the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) showed that about half of healthcare facilities in developing countries did not have running water leading to poor hygiene resulting in maternal and neonatal deaths.
She said in Ghana, apart from challenges with access to water, poor sanitation and environmental waste management especially in healthcare facilities was a daunting issue and underscored the need for investment in the WASH sector especially in the rural communities.
Mr Hypolite Yeleduor, the Garu District Director, Ghana Health Service, commended WaterAid Ghana and its partners for the gesture and noted that the facility would contribute significantly to improving quality healthcare in the area especially for pregnant women and children.
He said most of the 33 Community-based Health Planning Services (CHPS) compounds and the three Health centres did not have sustainable WASH services and advocated the adoption of WaterAid Ghana’s model to ensure that all healthcare facilities had sustainable access to WASH services.
Mr Osman Musah, the District Chief Executive for Garu, appealed to stakeholders in the community to properly maintain the facilities and said the Garu District Assembly had decided to increase budgetary allocation to WASH by 10 per cent to enable it improve upon the WASH situation in the district.
GNA