Bad Hygiene Ghana Loses $290 Million Yearly Over Poor Sanitation
Ghana loses about USD290 million yearly as a result of poor sanitation and bad hygiene.
Mr Benjamin Arthur, Executive Secretary of Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS), who announced this at a media dialogue, therefore, expressed concern about the inadequate resource allocation in the 2015 National Budget to deal with the issue.
Mr Arthur said, “Approximately 19,000 people including 5,100 children under the age of five die each year of diarrhoea, nearly 90% of which is directly attributed to poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services.”
He added that “USD54 million is lost each year in accessing health services.”
He however indicated that “Faecal contamination of the environment is the root cause of an annual average of 1,800 cases of cholera affecting people.”
“It is estimated that the cost of WASH response to such outbreaks is about USD1.2 million every year.
“This by implication means the cholera outbreak in 2014 which affected about 20,000 people would cost the country about USD13.3 million, excluding other economic implications as cost relating to loss of productivity.
source: pulse.com.gh
Two
students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
(KNUST) perished in an accident yesterday afternoon when the bus on
which they were returning from a church service skidded off the road and
hit a tree.
The two were members of the Ahinsan branch of the Redeemed Christian
Church of God who were being conveyed back to campus from Ahinsan by a
church bus.
They included a female who died on the spot, while the other, a male, was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
The accident occurred when the bus, which was descending a valley on the KNUST campus between the Katanga and the Brunei halls, skidded off the road and hit the tree.
So mangled was the bus that it took the assistance of the Ghana National Fire Service to use a chainsaw machine to cut through the metal to retrieve the injured.
Confirming the incident to the Daily Graphic, the Ashanti Regional Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent of Police Mr Frank Abrokwah, said about 11 other members who sustained various degrees of injury had been rushed to hospital.
He said while eight of the injured were on admission at the KNUST Hospital, the others, whose conditions were critical, had been sent to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).
Mr Abrokwah said before the police got to the scene, some of the injured had already been conveyed to hospital, saying the police were yet to identify those who perished and the driver of the vehicle.
So far, he said, police investigations had shown that most of the victims were Nigerian students studying at KNUST.
When contacted, the Assistant Registrar of KNUST in charge of University Relations, Mr Baafour Dankwah, confirmed the accident but declined to give further information.
He said the university would soon issue an official statement on it.
- See more at: http://graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/40489-2-knust-students-die-in-accident.html#sthash.KNebqEOg.dpufThey included a female who died on the spot, while the other, a male, was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
The accident occurred when the bus, which was descending a valley on the KNUST campus between the Katanga and the Brunei halls, skidded off the road and hit the tree.
So mangled was the bus that it took the assistance of the Ghana National Fire Service to use a chainsaw machine to cut through the metal to retrieve the injured.
Confirming the incident to the Daily Graphic, the Ashanti Regional Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent of Police Mr Frank Abrokwah, said about 11 other members who sustained various degrees of injury had been rushed to hospital.
He said while eight of the injured were on admission at the KNUST Hospital, the others, whose conditions were critical, had been sent to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).
Mr Abrokwah said before the police got to the scene, some of the injured had already been conveyed to hospital, saying the police were yet to identify those who perished and the driver of the vehicle.
So far, he said, police investigations had shown that most of the victims were Nigerian students studying at KNUST.
When contacted, the Assistant Registrar of KNUST in charge of University Relations, Mr Baafour Dankwah, confirmed the accident but declined to give further information.
He said the university would soon issue an official statement on it.
2 KNUST students die in accident
2 KNUST students die in accident
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