1.3 Million dollar WASH project for three regions
Eight districts across the Northern, Upper East and West regions are to benefit from a $1.3million Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project aimed at improving access to safe water and sanitation.
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The project, being implemented by WaterAid, Ghana with a grant of $1.3million from the Conrad Norman Hilton Foundation (CNHF), a United States (US)-based organisation, includes the provision of sanitation and hygiene facilities in health centres and senior high schools (SHS) in the beneficiary communities.
Additional funding
To ensure the sustenance of the project, WaterAid, Ghana has decided to source for additional funding of $1.3million from other donors to support the project to provide other facilities such as toilets in the beneficiary communities to discourage the practice of open defaecation at those areas.
Beneficiaries
The three-year project will be implemented in the Tamale Metropolis and Gushegu District in the Northern Region; Bolgatanga Municipality, Bongo and Bawku West districts in the Upper East Region; and Wa East in the Upper West Region.
It is expected to serve a total of 7,800 poor and marginalised people in those communities. It is being implemented by WaterAid, Ghana in collaboration with its local partners, Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) and International Resource Centre (IRC).
The Head of Programme of WaterAid, Ghana, Mr Yaw Asante Sarkodie, disclosed this at an implementation workshop on the project for beneficiary metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in Tamale last Tuesday.
Objective
Mr Sarkodie said the aim of the start-up workshop was to ensure the effective delivery of the programme by all stakeholders, in line with the requirements of the donor and WaterAid, Ghana as outlined in the agreement.
Statistics
Mr Sarkodie said available records at the Ministry of Health (MOH) indicated that over 60 per cent of all Out-Patient Department (OPD) cases were Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)-related diseases.
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"By this intervention, we hope to improve the living conditions in schools, health facilities and communities to help cut down on the WASH-related disease burden on the country," he indicated.
Mr Sarkodie explained further that the project would also focus on the rehabilitation of water facilities, strengthen technical and managerial capacity of the facilities at the community levels for sustainable management and delivery of water services.
The Extension Service Specialists of the CWSA for the Upper East and Northern regions, Messrs Emmanuel Adii and Abdallah Goro, in an interview, said rural water coverage levels for their regions were 63 per cent and 70 per cent respectively.