A child washing his hands
As most countries are striving hard to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 which has been set aside by the United Nations to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030, Ghana is unlikely to reach full implementation of the safe water goal that is essential for achieving the other SDGs.
Briefing members on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), and climate change at a one-day workshop in Accra at the Coconut Groove Hotel, the project manager of Catholic Relief Services(CRS), Chimbar Tom Laari made known to participants that Ghana is unlikely to achieve goal six of SDG.
According to him, it is a critical challenge that is heightening the problems arising from poor environmental practices and policy failures.
Such practices include, but are not limited to, dumping of municipal refuse and wastewater in water bodies, open defecation, open grazing, and unchecked oil pollution.
"The ecological human health risks are extremely high and the burden enormous," he said.
According to Laari, there is an urgent need for re-evaluation of Ghana's water policies, revamping of water agencies and infrastructure, and adequate funding of water-related collaborative research.
"This chapter discusses these challenges and calls for concerted efforts from governments, the private sector, and academia towards ensuring that water and sanitation problems are tackled effectively as a country. So far, Ghana has achieved only 2.2 percent of the SDG goals and time is not on our side," he said.
He advised the participants to properly dispose of waste to ensure that clean water is made available to Ghanaians.
The Catholic Relief Service(CRS) members also made known how some selected schools in the Northern Region have been trained to wash their hands before eating.
The following step-by-step process has been followed for effective handwashing:
Step 1: Wet hands with running water
Step 2: Apply enough soap to cover wet hands
Step 3: Scrub all surfaces of the hands including the back of hands, between fingers, and under nails for at least 20 seconds.
Step 4: Rinse thoroughly with running water.
Step 5: Dry hands with a clean cloth or single-use towel.
