By Stanley Senya
Accra, April 25, GNA – Saha Global, a non-profit organization, has called on government and stakeholders to ensure safe, sustainable and equitable access to water in remote communities across Ghana.
Mr. Kofi Duku, Director of Water Quality and Service Delivery, Saha Global, emphasized the need to rethink how water access and sustainability were handled in remote areas, where inconsistent support and limited resources have long hindered progress.
“It’s time we become more conscious about serving the last mile, we need to build networks that ensure safe water access reaches the very edge of our communities,” he said.
Speaking on identifying remote communities which had no access to water, he said Saha Global began with a specialized scouting team identified potential beneficiary communities and screened these communities based on several criteria, including water source quality, population consistency, and the feasibility of treatment.
“Some of these communities experience population shifts due to livelihood patterns, fishing, trading, farming, so we assess whether we can sustainably support them,” he explained.
He said, “once a community is selected, the teams set up a simplified water treatment system, including poly tanks, stands, and distributed buckets.”
“The water is treated through a three-step process: sedimentation, filtration, and chlorination. Local residents are then trained as water processors and supported with ongoing technical and financial training,” he added.
He said communities members were thought how to treat and sell water, and also how to manage finances, accounting, payments, and saving.
“We want them to build sustainable models that support their families and communities,” he said.
He said to ensure quality, the project included monthly in-house water testing and biannual third-party testing to monitor microbial and chemical safety, any contamination detected prompts an immediate halt in water distribution until the issue is resolved.
“A key goal of the project is to encourage the exclusive use of treated water within households to prevent waterborne diseases such as cholera and dysentery”, he said,
In addition to water safety, the initiative placed strong emphasis on sanitation. “We don’t just want them drinking clean water. We need them to maintain hygiene, so contamination levels don’t undo our progress,” he stressed.
GNA
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