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 for about two years in the 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 needs to be upscale for greater impact.
The I-PADEV Project is an integrated WASH initiative that 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, 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.
Water coverage in the operational municipalities has 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 has 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 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 addresses all the three most critical components of WASH at ago. And you can clearly see the great 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 its WASH goals (Sustainable Development Goal 6) and he believed 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 come in a disjointed form (i.e., stand-alone; water, sanitation, or hygiene projects) which according to experts 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 upscaling of the IPADEV project which has all the three most critical components of WASH has become more crucial to ending Ghana’s WASH challenges.
Aside the calls by WASH Experts, some Members of Parliament (MPs) from the beneficiary regions have also been advocating for upscaling of the IPADEV project.
By: Kofi Peprah/GWJN
