The Australian High Commission and WaterAid Ghana (WAG) have commissioned Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH) facilities for the Sombo and Dobile (now Duori) health centres in the Wa Municipality to improve healthcare delivery.

The Sombo CHPS and Duori Health Centre were provided with a four-seater and seven-seater bio digester toilet facilities respectively.

The Maternity Block at Sombo has now been provided with toilet and bathroom facilities, while the toilet at Duori Maternity Ward, which was not working, has been fixed.

The facilities were constructed by WAG, with funding from the Direct Aid Programme (DAP) of the Australian High Commission at the cost of 80,000 Australian dollars.

The DAP is a small grant programme funded from Australia’s Aid Budget.

WaterAid Ghana Country Director, Abdul Nashiru Mohammed, appealed to government to ensure that no healthcare facility was built without adequate, sustainable water and sanitation services.

“Every birthing centre should have basic hygiene and sterile conditions, particularly in delivering rooms and operating theatres,” he said.

“There must be hand-washing facilities with soap, cleaning and disinfection of facilities and safe management of medical waste”.

He called on the authorities to ensure that healthcare workers were informed and empowered to practice good hygiene behaviours at all service points.
Mr Andrew Barnes, the Australia High Commissioner, said he was passionate about access to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, the lack of which contributed to high maternal and neonatal deaths.

The Ministry of Health estimates that inadequate access to WASH services contribute to about 15 per cent of maternal deaths in the country, to which Mr Barnes said: “That is a huge number, and a number that we can change”.

He expressed the hope that with the provision of the facilities the incidence of open defecation, leading to preventable diseases like cholera, diarrhoea and typhoid fever, would reduce significantly and keep more women and children safe.

“Something as simple as access to toilet and water facilities can be the difference between longer, healthier lives and premature death or serious illness,” he said.

Prior to the intervention, Sombo CHIPS had a two-seater KVIP, which was inadequate for the population it served, while the Labour Ward did not have a toilet.

The Maternity Block at Sombo did not have a lavatory while the toilet at the Duori Maternity Ward was in an insanitary state.
Health workers in both facilities relied on Veronica Buckets for hand washing.

Mrs Regina Dong, the Midwife in charge of Sombo CHPS, told the Ghana News Agency that: “There was no privacy in the labour room and we used to have a lot of inconvenience, after attending to clients we had to wash our hands in a Veronica Bucket”.

“Sometimes too we scoop faeces with containers in the labour room because there was no toilet, it was pathetic but now we are very very happy,” she added.
Ms Ophelia Dapaah, the in-charge of Duori Health Centre, expressed joy that with the availability of the WASH amenities, open defecation and indiscriminate disposal of rubbish would minimise.

She said it would also reduce infections due to the insanitary conditions faced by staff and clients.

Access to clean water, safe sanitation and hygiene services are basic human requirements and captured under the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs), which Ghana signed in 2016.