Susana Tuogali, In Charge of the Busa Health Centre noted that hitherto, the lack of facilities had resulted in relatives of patients carrying water from home to the clinic for use and also causing patients to defecate openly around the health facility.

Inspecting the facilities after a short programme to mark the Busa edition of the World Water Day Celebration, Madam Yvonne Kafui Nyarko, the Communication and Campaign Officer for WaterAid Ghana, noted that access to WASH facilities in all health centres was critical to quality health delivery.

She said it was based on this that WaterAid with 700,000 US dollar funding from the Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and with implementation partnership from ProNet North was working to improve access to WASH across five healthcare facilities within Wa Municipal.

Madam Kafui noted that the theme for the World Water Day Celebration was "Leaving no one behind", explaining that the day was celebrated to highlight the need to ensure that everyone had access to water and the implications of the lack of access to water on the people.

She said it was done to ensure that duty bearers recognised the need to ensure that all marginalised communities also have access to water to avert suffering the consequences.

"Healthcare givers will be discouraged because they put themselves at risk without these basic WASH facilities", she emphasised.

The Communication and Campaign Officer for WaterAid Ghana said beyond the provision of WASH facilities at health centres, they were also campaigning against open defecation in the communities by encouraging the people to build their own household latrines to promote easing with dignity, while preventing sanitation related diseases.

Madam Kafui appealed to the people to take good care of the facilities provided to reap the necessary benefits.

Mr Crispin K. Yango, the Wa Municipal WASH Coordinator thanked WaterAid and HSBC for supporting the Assembly to improve access to WASH facilities across health centres within the Municipality.

While urging the people to take care of their water sources and toilet facilities for sustainable use, Mr Yango who is also the Wa Municipal Development Planning Officer hinted that the Assembly would be closely monitoring the usage of these facilities and would not hesitate to issue out sanctions to communities that misused theirs.

Mr Paul Mornah, the Municipal Environmental Health Officer said Wa Municipal was last in the region in terms of open defecation and appealed to the people to embrace the concept of household latrines in order to help reverse the situation.