By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
Some experts in the field of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) at the 35th edition of the annual Mole Conference Series have called on the government of Ghana and its development partners to adopt and scale-up Plan International Ghana’s Integrated Package for Sustainable Development (I-PADEV) Project.
According to them, the success story of the I-PADEV Project, which was plotted about two years in 10 most deplorable communities within the Jasikan Municipality in the Oti region and another 10 most deplorable communities in the West Mamprusi Municipality in the North East region need to be upscale for greater impact.
The I-PADEV Project is an integrated WASH initiative which seeks to create a resilient and protective environment for better health and learning outcomes for children, especially girls, through equitable access to and effective utilization of WASH, Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD), Education, and Health facilities and Services.
The IPADEV Project Manager, Mr. William Domapielle, who took participants through the history, success chalked and some challenges faced before, and during the implementation stages of the project during a presentation at the 35th edition of the annual Mole Conference Series in Ho, the Volta regional capital, announced that through the successful implementation of the IPADEV Project, 12 communities out of the 20 communities he and his team are working in have been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) through the implementation of the CLTS Approach and the remaining eight (8) are waiting for their certification for ODF status.
According to water coverage in the operational municipalities have been increased from 41 facilities to 61 facilities directly serving 13,200 beneficiaries.
“In schools, access to safe drinking water has been increased from 4 to 20, while utilization of safe drinking water had increased from 68% to 87%. Children especially girls in 20 Schools have access to improved sanitary facilities on their school compound which has kept them in school
Water Sanitation Management Teams have so far been trained on the operation and maintenance of water facilities. (140 members trained comprising of 78 males (55%) and 62 females (45%)
Natural leaders have been trained to support in creating demand for household latrine construction (152 people identified and trained including 91 males (60%) and 61 women (40%) while over 100 vulnerable persons are being supported to construct household toilets (43 males, 57 females).” Mr Domapielle told the gathering.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with GBCGHANAONLINE’S Franklin ASARE-DONKOH, after the presentation, a WASH consultant and the Chief Executive Officer of SkyFox limited, Mr. Patrick Apoya commended Plan Int. Ghana for coming up with such a wonderful initiative.
“Franklin, you see the IPADEV project unlike most WASH initiatives carried out over the years, comes as a complete meal. It address all the three most critical component of WASH at ago. And you can clearly see the grate impact it has made and will continue to make in the lives of the beneficiary communities.
It is for this reason that I add my voice to the earlier calls on the government and its development partners to adopt the IPADEV project and scale it up across the country to cover underserved communities.” He said.
The WASH consultant and CEO of SkyFox limited, maintained that even though a lot of gains had been made in the WASH sector a lot more needed to be done to ensure that Ghana achieves it WASH goals (Sustainable Development Goal 6) and he was of the believe that initiatives like the IPADEV project when upscale will go a long way to address not only environmental challenges, but those of education, health and the economic wellbeing of the citizenry.
Most WASH projects or initiatives comes in a disjointed form (i.e. , stand alone; water, sanitation or hygiene project) which according to experts it has not helped in dealing with challenges in the sector effectively and holistically.
There can never be proper sanitation and hygiene without water and vice versa. For instance providing toilet and handwashing stations without water provision defeats the purpose of putting up such facilities, hence, the adoption and up scaling of the IPADEV project which has all the three most critical component of WASH has become more crucial to end Ghana’s WASH challenges.
Aside the calls by WASH Experts, some Members of Parliament (MPs) from the beneficiary regions have also been advocating for up scaling of the IPADEV project.
