The Ghanaian government has pledged to make affordable hand hygiene facilities accessible to all to boost public health and wellbeing, Sanitation and Water Resources Minister Lydia Seyram Alhassan stated on Tuesday.
Alhassan disclosed this during the national commemoration of the annual Global Handwashing Day in Accra, the Ghanaian capital.
The minister’s pledge came amid the outbreak of cholera in some parts of the West African country.
She said the initiative is part of the country’s comprehensive handhygiene strategy, introduced in 2023.
“This comprehensive strategy aims to provide accessible, affordable, and sustainable hand hygiene facilities for all by 2030, in both regular and emergency situations, while minimizing environmental impact,” Alhassan stated.
She urged all stakeholders in the health, education, hospitality, and water, sanitation, and hygiene sectors to adopt and implement the strategy to help the country achieve the goals.
“Together we can create an environment in our homes, schools, healthcare facilities, work places, and public spaces where hand hygiene is prioritized,” the minister added.
Theodora Adomako-Adjei, the national coordinator of the national handwashing campaign, urged Ghanaians to develop the culture of hand hygiene to protect themselves against unnecessary infections.
She urged food vendors and people who handle food at home and elsewhere to practice thorough handwashing with soap under running water before handling food in order to protect themselves and those who eat their meals from infections.
She said Ghanaians must not allow the momentum of the handwashing campaign to die , but help to sustain the progress made so far.
“Let’s all support the initiative to sustain behavioral change. Coordinated and collective action is critical to the advancement of hand hygiene access and practice. Indeed, clean hands are important; the time to accelerate hand hygiene progress is now, and it requires a collective effort to enact real change,” Adomako-Adjei urged.
This year’s theme for Global Handwashing Day, “Why are clean hands still important?”, emphasizes the role of hand hygiene in preventing infections, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ghanaian officials took turns to educate school children, food vendors, and market women on the need to maintain healthy hand hygiene.
Monday, the Ghana Health Service announced the outbreak of cholera in parts of the Greater Accra Region, with nine cases confirmed in two districts.
