Mr Stephen Engmen, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Northern Development Authority (NDA), says all contractors in charge of NDA projects are required to provide hand washing facilities at the projects sites.

That, he said, would enable the workers at the projects sites to practice regular hand washing with soap under running water as part of the precautionary measures against the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Mr Engmen said this at Busa in the Wa Municipality when he handed over a project for the construction of a maternity ward at the Busa Health Centre.

The GHC220,000.00 two-delivery bed and two-lying-in bed capacity maternity ward project, was under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) as part of the implementation of the One Million Dollar per Constituency initiative of the government.

“All NDA project contractors are directed to provide hand washing facilities for the workers. It will be one of the conditions to measure the progress of work,” Mr Engmen explained.

The Deputy CEO said any contractor who failed to provide the hand washing facilities would be sanctioned, and added that “we don’t want to build the facilities and the people will die and leave them”.

The NDA also cut sod for the construction of a 15-bed capacity emergency ward at the Lawra Municipal Hospital at the cost of GHC607,000.00 under the same project.

The contractors in charge of the projects assured the NDA Deputy CEO, the A&QS Consult Limited, the consultant for the projects, and the people that they would follow all the project requirements and to ensure the safety of the workers.