BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE
The minister, who said these when he delivered the keynote address at the beginning of a three-day West Africa regional workshop in Accra Monday, May 6, 2013, on household water treatment and safe storage, with the theme “Scaling-up HWTS – National policy environment and integration strategies”, indicated that according to the country’s 2009 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) report, less than 8% of Ghanaians treat drinking water before using.
Hon. Akwasi Opong-Fosu |
Hon. Akwasi Opong-Fosu, Ghana’s Minister
For Local Government and Rural Development, has lamented that in spite of
efforts made in achieving the country’s water Millennium Development Goal (MDG)
target,
diarrhoea still remains the third killer of children
under five years of age, accounting for 10,000 deaths every year.
Diarrhoea like many other diseases contracted
through ingestion of contaminated and unsafe water, results in frequent passing
of stool and vomiting and thus causes dehydration within a very short time. If
not treated in time it can result in death as a result of the loss of body
fluid.
Painting a squalid picture of the
negative effects of contaminated water on the Ghanaian citizenry, he said: “Our
health facilities continue to record periodic cholera outbreaks in some urban
areas and small towns. For example, in
2012 we reported 9,548 cholera cases with some 100 deaths.”
The minister, who said these when he delivered the keynote address at the beginning of a three-day West Africa regional workshop in Accra Monday, May 6, 2013, on household water treatment and safe storage, with the theme “Scaling-up HWTS – National policy environment and integration strategies”, indicated that according to the country’s 2009 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) report, less than 8% of Ghanaians treat drinking water before using.
“This is
not encouraging at all and I know the picture is not too different from what
pertains in most African countries. This indicates that the issue of safe water
at the point of use should be taken more seriously in our various countries
than we have done over the years,” he told the participants from
English-speaking countries in the sub-region.
He assured
that the Government of Ghana is conscious of the benefits being derived from
effective practicing of Household Water Treatment and Safe storage, and
therefore has put in place a strategy to guide its implementation at the
household level.
“The
bedrock of this strategy is behavioural change and involvement of private
sector through public private partnership,” Hon. Opong-Fosu stated.
Declaring
that Ghana has various categories of trained government staff, like the
Environmental Health Assistants, Community Health Nurses and community
development officers found in all metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies
(MMDAs) who have the mandate and required skills to educate and promote water,
sanitation and hygiene programmes, including Household Water Treatment and Safe
Storage (HWTS) in communities, he pledged continual resourcing by Government to
enable them effectively deliver on their mandate.
Currently,
unsafe drinking water, along with inadequate hygiene and sanitation,
contributes to an estimated 1.9 million annual deaths globally, which includes
children under five years of age.
While
countries work to provide universal access to safe, reliable piped-in water,
the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
have called for targeted, interim approaches that will accelerate the health
gains associated with safe drinking
water for those whose water supplies are unsafe.
One of such
approaches is household water treatment and safe storage (HWTS) to prevent
contamination during collection, transport and use in the home.
Already,
evidence shows that the use of HWTS methods improves the microbiological
quality of household water and thus reduces the burden of diarrhoeal disease in
users.
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