Canadian government funds district capacity-building project

Tamale, Feb.19, GNA- The Canadian government has provided seven million dollars for the establishment of a District Capacity Building Project (DISCAP) at the School of Hygiene in Tamale.

The project seeks to offer training to staff of both the District Environmental Health Unit of the District Assemblies and the Water and Sanitation Development Board in the three Northern Regions. Madam Kathy Durand, DISCAP Training Specialist who announced this at the launch of the project at the Tamale School of Hygiene on Wednesday, said the training would enable the personnel to maintain their water and sanitation facilities in a sustainable manner.

She said 400 million cedis would be disbursed in the training of 100 of such personnel of the 24 district assemblies in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions for the next five years.

She said the project would sponsor each of the personnel with 3.5 million cedis at the Tamale School of Hygiene to develop their knowledge and skills to enable them to carry out their duties in a more professional and sustainable manner.

Some 25 hygiene educators from the three regions, which formed the first batch, have already started the training while the District Water and Sanitation Team and the District Environmental Health Officers are on the waiting list to undergo the eight-weeks training. The trainees would be taken through the elementary principles of hygiene and sanitation and the application in their routine work, development and execution of programmes to improve conditions in the environment.

They would also carry out plans for servicing equipment and tools used for the performance of their duties. The training would also cover effective communication, awareness creation and mobilisation of communities for the provision of amenities for the improvement of the environment, as well as acquiring adequate knowledge of the central government system and non-governmental organizations and agencies.

Mr Philip A.K. Zori, Principal of the School said the three Northern Regions were experiencing unprecedented conditions of poor environmental sanitation and administrative challenges

He blamed the situation on the school system, which he said had not helped much to improve hygiene awareness to disperse beliefs and produce environmental consciousness among the citizenry.

He attributed the high incidence of diarrhoea, worm infestation, malaria, trachoma, scabies and anaemia in the communities to the non-observance of personal and environmental hygiene. Mr Zori called on district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies to give financial support to improve knowledge, and skills of handling sanitation issues at the community level.

He said the school was committed to the project and urged the district assemblies to develop stronger partnership between the health sector and local government organizations to promote "local setting" initiatives for environmental sanitation.

The Principal said the school would put concepts such as personal hygiene, environmental sanitation, health promotion, environmental protection, water and sanitation issues into action in the rural communities to ensure a successful implementation of the project.