Diageo provides water, sanitation facilities for Nungua schools
An integrated water and sanitation project, costing GH¢208,000 has been inaugurated for the Krowor Cluster of Schools and surrounding communities at Nungua in the Greater Accra Region.
Advertisement
The project, funded by the parent company of Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited, Diageo Plc, is aimed at providing sustainable access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation to over 5,000 pupils and teachers of the cluster of schools and about 4,000 community members.
The initiative comprises a 60,000-litre-capacity overhead and underground storage facility connected to nine standpipes dotted across the cluster.
It also includes the construction of a 10-seater water closet structure and a refurbished 20-seater closet connected to a mechanised borehole.
As part of the project, the Unilever Ghana Limited, through its Lifebuoy soap brand, also supported the cluster of schools with hygiene and handwashing education and supplies to inculcate hygienic and healthy habit in the pupils.
Inaugurating project
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, the Corporate Relations Director of GGBL, Ms Preba Greenstreet, said the initiative formed part of GGBL’s Integrated Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (I-WASH) project funded by Diageo’s Employee Giving for Good programme to provide sustainable access to safe drinking water.
“The GGBL, together with the Diageo Foundation, has since 2007 invested in 64 projects across the country, spanning from hospitals in rural communities.
“Last year for instance, we provided accessible drinking water to 170,000 beneficiaries at the Maamobi Hospital in Accra, Tamale West and Central Hospital in the Northern Region, a testament to our commitment to empower our communities,” she stated.
GGBL’s investments in water projects
The Global Head of Community Investment of the Diageo Plc, the parent company of the GGBL, Lynne Smethurst, said the foundation and GGBL believed that sustainable access to water and sanitation empowered communities.
“We have seen at firsthand the impact these projects make in the lives of the communities we invest in; improved health, increase in school enrolment, women empowerment and restored dignity for all.
“Through our Water of Life project, Diageo and the GGBL are making a difference in our world and contributing towards the realisation of the United Nation’s MDG 7 on water and sanitation,” she added.
GGBL’s gesture is worthy example
In a speech read on her behalf, the Minster of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, said the government alone could not bear the cost of education and commended GGBL for its commitment to improve basic amenities for schools.
“The gesture of the GGBL is a worthy example of the public-private partnership that makes life better for our schoolchildren and other corporate bodies must emulate,” she stated.
The Member of Parliament for Krowor, Dr Nii Oakley Quaye-Kumah, said the water and sanitation facilities would go a long way to make life quite bearable for the people, especially women and children, who hitherto walked long for distances in search of water.
Writer’s email: [email protected]