Water started
flowing from a new borehole in Kpugli – two months after the community’s chief
asked for UNICEF Representative Iyabode Olusanmi’s help to provide safe water
to his people.
Dr Olusanmi visited
Kpugli on November 7 last year to celebrate the community becoming open
defecation free. In August last year, every family in Kpugli built their own
latrines by hand, (using local materials) as part of the Community Led Total
Sanitation (CLTS) program. They used hoes and pick axes to dig the latrines;
straw mats for the walls; and local soap and ash for handwashing. Each compound
now has its own latrine (60 in total) and nobody defecates in the open.
Kpugli Chief Yakubu
Andani Iddrisu led the community in its efforts to become Open Defecation Free.
The Chief and community instituted sanctions - a fine of GH¢10 for anyone
caught defecating in the open. Since then only one culprit has been caught.The
community members also altered their calendar, replacing farming on Fridays
with community clean up.
But there was one
thing missing: safe water. When the Representative visited Kpugli, the Chief
told her about the community’s struggle for water. In the wet season, they had
one muddy pond from which to fetch. They shared that water source with goats
and other animals. That pond was empty in the dry season, and they had to walk
up to 50 minutes to River Dakar to collect water.The
Representative listened, and she made sure UNICEF delivered.
“Kpugli
is a shining light for Community Led Total Sanitation in the Northern Region,
and we were determined to help them find a safe drinking water supply. I would
encourage other communities in Northern Ghana to follow Kpugli’s lead and
become open defecation free. Safe water and sanitation is essential to the
health of children,” Dr Olusanmi said.
In
December 2012 UNICEF partner, Rural Water Development of Church of Christ,
started drilling for water. And on January 29, people started pumping safe
water from the new borehole in Kpugli. A Water and Sanitation Committee has
been formed, made up of volunteer community members who will manage the
borehole. They will maintain the pump.
Helping
to provide safe water to people most at need is a key pillar of the UNICEF
2012-2016 country program. Kpugli is in an area recently freed from Guinea
worm, and it qualified for support under the UNICEF and European Union-funded
I-WASH project. The project provided safe water to Guinea Worm endemic
communities in 10 districts in the Northern Region, at a cost of €16.6 million.
In the five years of the project, more than 346,000 people got access to clean
water in more than 350 communities. Safe water provided by this project helped
break transmission of Guinea Worm in 2011.
Government with support from UNICEF and its donors are monitoring these
water supply schemes to ensure services are continuously available and Ghana is
certified as Guinea worm free.
Community
Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) has become an entry point for development in
Kpugli. It has improved education and health outcomes in the community. Good
sanitation, like that practiced in Kpugli, helps prevent diarrhoea and the
contamination of water sources. There is nearly 100% attendance at school, and
families no longer have to rush their sick children to hospital with diarrhoea.
Key is the effort of the community’s four Natural Leaders for Community Led
Total Sanitation, who double and triple in roles such as health volunteers as
well as Child Protection Team members, ensuring convergence of UNICEF-supported
programmes in the community. Good water and sanitation in Kpugli is helping to
foster good nutrition in Children who suffer from repeated bouts of diarrhoea
miss out on essential nutrients and can become stunted (too short for their
age) and have a reduced ability to learn at school. The community now wants to
build a new grinding mill. UNICEF has been talking to other development partners
about how they can support this initiative.
Kpugli
is now in the top 15% of households in Ghana who use latrines that aren't
shared. Nearly 1 out of 4 (23%) households in Ghana practice open defecation or
have no toilet facility. In northern Ghana rates of open defecation are above
70 percent.
Kpugli
is part of the new Mion district, which was carved out of Yendi district in
December last year. Before the separation, 78 communities in the Yendi and Mion
districts became open defecation free (out of a target of 80). This was the highest number of ODF
communities in a district in Northern Ghana.This year, the two districts have
set more ambitious targets. Together, Yendi and Mion have a goal of 140 open
defecation communities in 2013: 80 for
the first quarter of the year, 40 for the second quarter and 10 each for the
third and fourth quarters.
UNICEF
is helping to provide safe water to people most at need across Ghana. By 2016,
UNICEF will have provided an extra 500,000 people with safe water. UNICEF also
aims to help 300,000 people in Northern Ghana start living in open defecation
free communities by 2016.Safe water and sanitation prevents -diarrhoea
pneumonia and other diseases: improving children’s health and preventing
stunting and malnutrition.
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