Kumasi, Dec. 2, GNA - The Otumfuo Education Fund has added another dimension to its scope of activity with the introduction of water and sanitation components.

It would now be assisting in providing potable water to basic schools in deprived communities nation-wide and encourage school children to wash their hands with detergents.

Dr Agyarko Poku, the Executive Secretary of the Fund, said at a pre-launch media briefing in Kumasi that PZ-Cussons Ghana Limited was sinking an initial 10,000 Ghana cedis into this.

The company will supply Camel anti-bacterial products and Veronica buckets, christened "Adepa bucket," hygienically designed plastic buckets fitted with taps for school children to wash their hands. The programme will be launched at the Jubilee Park on Thursday where some of the "Adepa buckets" will be given out to some basic schools. He said in partnership with Guinness Ghana Limited, ministries of Education and Health and the Serwaah Ampem Foundation, 1,000 schools in Brong-Ahafo, Upper East and West, Northern, Western and Central regions had been selected for the project which would span five years. Dr Poku, who is also the Ashanti Regional Coordinator for HIV and AIDS, said the project would later spread to other areas in the country, especially, to schools in areas that have problems with potable water. Boreholes and poly tanks would be supplied to such basic schools to ensure the sustenance of the hand-washing programme, basically designed to inculcate in school children the habit of practicing hygiene to safeguard their health.

Mr Kwame Wiafe, Commercial Director of PZ-Cussons, said his company was happy to commit about 50,000 Ghana cedis to the Fund in support of this project.