Yarigu (U/E), July 2, GNA – Water Aid Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organization, has launched a hygiene behaviour change campaign project in the Bawku West District of the Upper East Region to improve the adoption and sustainability of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) best practices.
The project dubbed, “Clean Community Campaign” under the Water Aid Ghana’s Securing Water Resources Approach Project, is being funded by the People Postcode Lottery (PPL), an international organization and seeks to inculcate the practice of good hygiene into communities in the district.
The campaign would be implemented in 30 communities and 10 healthcare facilities in the district and would involve hygiene behaviour change competition among beneficiary households, communities and healthcare facilities regarding clean toilets and kitchens.
Water Aid also presented hygiene and coronavirus disease preventive equipment including 30 gallons of bleach, 12 gallons of liquid soap and 164 boxes (3935 pieces) of alcohol-based hand sanitisers to the Bawku West District Directorate of Ghana Health Service to be distributed to the healthcare facilities in the district.
Speaking at the launch at Yarigu, Mrs Kate Kumi, the Acting Country Director, Water Aid Ghana, said the campaign which employs evidence-based hygiene behaviour change approaches had already been implemented in six other Municipalities and Districts across the country.
“The Clean Community Campaign has already been successfully launched in six Municipal and District Assemblies and these are Ablekuma Central Municipal in the Greater Accra Region, Kwahu Afram Plains North District in the Eastern Region, Nanumba South District in the Northern Region, Wa Municipal in the Upper East Region, and Bongo and Kassena-Nankana West Districts in the Upper East Region,” she said.
She said hygiene was critical to the wellbeing of the people and the outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 and other infectious diseases had made it more necessary for all stakeholders to prioritize WASH issues.
Mrs Kumi said the campaign which is informed by formative research, incorporates insights gained from the organization’s numerous years of experience and would seek to use emotional drivers of behaviour to trigger behaviour change to motivate people to initiate and sustain good hygiene behaviour.
She said, “Hygiene saves lives, the undeniable fact was made prominent in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the whole world rallied around a central campaign theme that we at Water Aid have been championing for three decades. The simple act of handwashing with soap under running water became a worldwide phenomenon and effective tool to fight COVID-19.”
Mr Jesse Coffie Danku, the Head of Programmes, Water Aid Ghana, explained that apart from the project providing technical capacity building training for the beneficiaries, it had a climate change component to enable communities to measure rainfall patterns.
He said the project which provided water systems to some healthcare facilities in the district aimed to further build the capacity of communities on their right to WASH and influence MMDAs to prioritize WASH in their development plans.
Mr Alhassan Lawal, the Bawku West District Director of Ghana Health Service, lauded the efforts of Water Aid Ghana and its sponsors for the project and indicated the directorate would effectively support the implementation of the project to improve quality healthcare delivery in the area.
Mr Ahmed Alhassan, the Bawku West District Coordinating Director acknowledge the support of Water Aid Ghana to the district over the years and said the gains made from their work would be mainstreamed into the medium-term development plans of the district and adequate budgetary allocation made towards their implementation.
GNA