By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Asaloko (U/E), May 22, GNA – The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) for Public Health project implemented by WaterAid Ghana, a WASH-focused organisation is contributing positively to good sanitation and hygiene practices at Asaloko in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region.
Through the intervention, the community inculcated communal spirit and instituted measures which have helped them attain an Open Defecation Free status and sustained the status for six years running and are on the verge of being sanitised.
They achieved these feet by supporting every household with approximately 60 in number in the community and about 1,050 residents to build and install a household latrine.
Through the formulation of by-laws, backed by traditional laws the community instituted monthly clean-up exercises and punished residents who defecated and littered the environment indiscriminately.
These came to light at Asaloko during a community durbar to showcase the success of the community after being declared open defection-free in the last six years.
Mr Jerry Nyaaba, Secretary of the Water and Sanitation Management Team of the community, recalled that before the intervention in 2015, open defection and poor sanitation practices were major challenges in the community.
“Before the intervention of WaterAid, Asaloko was a community, which cannot be described as seen today, we were facing a lot of problems concerning WASH due to our ignorance, but through WaterAid education and advocacy, we have achieved so many things which have brought us to our current state and must be appreciated,” he said.
According to the Secretary, through knowledge acquired from the interventions, the community resolved to work collectively through a series of meetings, adherence to laid down laws and agreed principles and communal labour to develop the community.
He said apart from public education, the community leaders also introduced fines as punishment for perpetrators of poor sanitation and hygiene practices in the community.
“For example, in 2017, a community member was caught defecating outside and was fined GH¢60.00, this alone put fear in people in the community. Another sanitation law that really did the magic for us was, that you cannot fetch water in the community if you don’t have a household latrine and because of this measure, as of 31st December 2016, about 98 per cent of the houses were already having household latrines,” he said.
Apart from that, he said through the communal spirit, the community members were able to pull local resources together to raise a block for a kindergarten school in their community and led advocacy for the construction of a Junior High School in their Electoral Area (Gorigo Electoral Area) which was serving students in the area.
He added that through their work, WaterAid Ghana in addition to the capacity building constructed a mechanised borehole for the community which was a relief, especially for pregnant women and children, “we were still relying on our existing two boreholes, where people have to walk about 5km to 10km to have access to water, sometimes people travel out of the community to search for water”.
Mr Nyaaba said the community was determined to be sanitised by the end of the year, advocated for the construction of a community-based Health Planning Services compound and appealed to organisations for assistance.
Ms Fauzia Aliu, Policy, Campaigns, and Inclusion Manager, WaterAid Ghana, lauded the Asaloko community for their achievements and urged other communities to emulate such examples to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals particularly goal six.
In a speech read on her behalf, Ms Rita Atanaga, District Chief Executive, Bongo, said open defecation was still a major challenge in the district and appealed for collective efforts to address the challenge.
GNA