By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Yagaba (NE/R), Oct 17, GNA – The Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has called for concerted efforts from stakeholders to address infrastructure and behaviour change deficits among vulnerable communities to improve sanitation and hand hygiene practices.
This can be achieved through creating an enabling environment for people to have access to safe water and appropriate facilities to practice regular and proper hand washing at all levels, including homes, healthcare facilities and schools, among others.
“I would like to make a passionate appeal to all partners, including government, development partners, private sector, media, traditional authorities, religious clerics and most importantly households to come together and to contribute their quota to accelerate hand hygiene practice…the time to act is now”.
Mr Daniel Yakuba, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Coordinator, CRS, made the call during the commemoration of this year’s Global Handwashing Day marked at Yagaba in the Mamprugu Moagduri District of the North East Region.
It was held on the theme: “Clean hands are within reach”.
Mr Yakuba noted that despite research showing the significant role hand washing with soap under running water played in the prevention of diseases such as diarrhoea and other Respiratory Tract Infections, many people across the world could not still practice proper hand washing.
“It is a known fact that there is a correlation between hand washing with soap and incidence of diarrhoea related diseases, the sad reality is that, about 2.3 billion people globally cannot wash their hands with soap and water at home.
“One-third of the world’s health facilities lack hand hygiene resources at the point of care and nearly half of schools worldwide do not have basic hygiene services, affecting 817 million children,” he said.
Mr Yakuba said the situation was worse in developing countries where there was limited access to safe drinking water, incidence of poverty and high risk of displacement due to natural disasters and arms conflict.
To help address the challenge, he said, CRS Ghana invested $13 million dollars in local capacity strengthening, social and behaviour change activities, and provision of WASH infrastructure in the Talensi District in the Upper East Region, and Mamprugu Moagduri District and West Mamprusi Municipality in the North East Region.
The projects dubbed, “Integrated Community Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Improvement (ICOWASH I and II) Projects”, was funded by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable
Trust, a United States based charity organisation, and was aimed at improving wellbeing of citizens in the beneficiary areas.
Under the projects, 10 mechanised water systems and 93 boreholes fitted with hand pumps had been constructed in beneficiary communities and healthcare facilities while 276 institutional latrines had been installed in schools and healthcare facilities leading to 209 and 50 schools and healthcare facilities respectively being declared WASH friendly institutions.
While 35 bathrooms, 39 incinerators and 45 multipurpose hand washing machines were provided to healthcare facilities, the projects helped to certify 196 communities as open defecation free and nine as sanitized communities.
“These interventions are contributing in diverse ways to improving hand washing with soap and the practice of other improved hygiene and sanitation behaviour among the last mile population in the project operational communities,” he added.
Dr Gustav Merrit Osiakwan, the North East Regional Director of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency, regretted that many Ghanaians had abandoned hand washing after the COVID-19 and encouraged the public to wash their hands with soap before eating, cooking and touching, especially after visiting the toilet.
Mr Abu Adam, the Mamprugu Moagduri District Chief Executive, who lauded CRS and its partners for the investment over the years called for concerted efforts to increase investment in the provision of WASH facilities and services to all persons.
GNA