GWI meets water and sanitation needs of Black Volta basin communities
The Global Water Initiative (GWI), a non-governmental organization, has within the last four years provided water and sanitation facilities for 32 vulnerable communities within the Black Volta basin in the Nadowli and Lawra districts of the Upper West region.
Mr. Attah Arhin, GWI Country Coordinator of the project, said this was made possible through the support of Howard Buffet Foundation of the United States of America, which provided $3 million for the execution of the four-year project that started in 2009.
These were made known when officials of the GWI briefed the media in Wa on Tuesday on the achievements of the project, which is to end September 30, 2012.
Mr Arhin said the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Care International and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) were the implementing agencies.
The intervention focused on potable water provision, giving subsidies to households to construct latrines and integrated water resource management and School Health Education Programmes (SHEP).
During the period, 17,000 households in beneficiary communities had access to potable water through the construction and rehabilitation of 39 boreholes, three limited mechanized water systems for some communities and two rain harvesting systems for schools.
Mr. Arhin said the second phase of the project had been scheduled to begin in 2013 and end in 2017 but according to him, the sponsors had decided to shift focus from water and sanitation to massive agric production, an area the sponsors did not think the current beneficiary districts could meet targets.
Mr. Adama Yussif, GWI Project Manager, said since the inception of the project there had been a marked improvement in hygiene in 21 communities where 500 households were given subsidies to construct their own latrines.
He said among others that 20 local artisans, who were trained under the project, had been supporting households to construct their own latrines.
This had led to a drastic reduction in open defecation in the beneficiary communities.
On the school health programme, he said, 30 SHEP teachers, 150 school health management committee members and 15 SHEP clubs had been trained while first aid kits were supplied to the schools resulting in healthy school environment in the beneficiary communities of the two districts.
The project promoted multiple water use systems in three communities, constructed three dug-outs for animal watering and researched on trans-boundary water resource management under the integrated water resource management component of the project.
Mr. Yussif mentioned unwillingness of people to pay for water services and illiteracy among community members with regard to documentation and management of records as key challenges faced during the implementation of the project
Source: GNA