The introduction of the free SHS education programme has doubled the total intake of students, which has overstretched facilities with concerns for improved sanitary measures to help avert communicable diseases.

Speaking in an interview with the media during a sanitation sensitisation programme being organised by Zoomlion Ghana Limited and the Ghana Education Service at Vakpo Senior High School, Mrs Abayavor stated that “per the population we have in the schools, almost everything is overstretched, and sanitation issues should be prioritised to help avert the spread of diseases.”

She said, “Sanitation should start with the personality involved up to the community at large and students should start with their personal hygiene which will help improve their health and academic performance.”

Mrs Abayavor expressed gratitude to Zoomlion Ghana Limited for the partnership with the Ghana Education Service to help undertake sanitation awareness programmes in Senior High Schools, and appealed to other private institutions to support schools in need of improved sanitation facilities.

The Schools Health Education Programme (SHEP) Coordinator of the Volta Region, Mr. Constant Kofi Dzakpasu, took the students through personal hygiene tips such as handwashing, cleaning one’s immediate environment among others, and tasked them to practise personal hygiene at all times.

He said “Effective behaviour change programmes are critical to the success and sustainability of all water, sanitation and hygiene interventions. Schools must practise handwashing with soap, safe handling of drinking water, safe excreta disposal, environmental sanitation and personal hygiene including menstrual hygiene.”

A Senior Communications Officer of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Mr Adams Mohammed Mahama, explained that proper solid waste management practises by stating that “Solid waste management starts with the individual in that when you put your solid waste in a waste bin, it becomes easier to collect and send them to recycling facilities established by Zoomlion to recycle them into re-usable products.”

He charged the students to be good agents of sanitation practises in their communities to help make Ghana a clean nation.

The Assistant Headmaster of Vakpo SHS expressed the school’s appreciation to Zoomlion Ghana Limited and GES for the education and support to help manage solid waste within the campus.

The team donated waste bins to the school to help store solid waste for safe collection.