Availability Of Treated Water Vital In Halting Spread Of Ebola

There needs to be a sustained  effort to educate the general public about the nature of the Ebola virus - and how those living in Ghana can prevent themselves from becoming infected by it.

Widespread ignorance in the population at large, about the symptoms and causes of Ebola,  will lead to the virus spreading quickly in Ghana.

A key factor  in stopping the Ebola virus from spreading in Ghana, should it reach our shores, is to build the capacity of the authorities responsible for public health in our country: to enable them isolate those who contract  it (and speedily trace all those who come into contact with them) and offer them  treatment quickly.

 And, above all, essential to the maintenance of  public health in our country, as we prepare to contain any outbreak of Ebola, is the ready availability of treated water, in both rural and urban Ghana.

That is how as a people  we must approach the issue of the provision of treated drinking-water: as part of the fight against the spread of infectious diseases.

It is time our ruling elites understood clearly that the unavailability of treated drinking-water impacts negatively on public health in Ghana.

Personal hygiene is a key factor in preventing debilitating and potentially fatal water-borne bacterial infections such as cholera and dysentery - which thrive in areas that lack treated water and in which insanitary conditions exist.

Alas, personal hygiene is virtually impossible to maintain, without treated water. Water indeed is life - and must be made available everywhere in Ghana.

 How can there be frequent hand-washing to prevent infectious disease, for example, when treated water neither flows through taps in homes, restaurants, hospitals, schools, nor in other public places such as  entertainment establishments and stadia?

It is not surprising that there are frequent outbreaks of cholera in many parts of our country - because treated water is often not available in so many areas. That must change. And that change must come quickly: At a time when Ebola could potentially  kill thousands in west Africa, including Ghana.

The time has now come for the government to look to the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE),  as a platform to enable it raise interest-free funds, for the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL).

That, not never-ending tariff increases,  is the best way to raise funds for the company. Frequent tariff increases in a nation in which millions struggle daily to survive, can never be a sustainable policy.

 The government ought to float at least 45 percent of its shares in the GWCL on the GSE. That will enable the company to fund the entirety of its modernisation and expansion programme itself  - and enable it widen its service-footprint across the country.

That will contribute to the eventual elimination of diseases that spread quickly in Ghana, because of the insanitary conditions that prevail  in many areas,  and the attendant poor personal hygiene forced on many, as a result of the unavailability of treated water in many parts of the country.

The GWCL also needs to be creative. For example, it can quickly increase its production of treated water across the country, by increasing the capacity of its filtration plants - simply by reprocessing settled backwash through the Aquavert system  employed in places like Kenya.

It could also deploy the nano-tech filtration system of SafeWater Systems of the UK - which have the capacity to produce pure and safe water directly from even dirty water polluted by the heavy metals used by illegal gold miners. Malaysia uses SafeWater Systems' kits to produce water for its rural communities.

We will not be able to stop the spread of Ebola in Ghana, were it to appear here,  if the irregular supply of  treated water across our country, persists. We must fix Ghana's treated water supply problem quickly. Simply put, the availability of treated water, is vital, in halting the spread of Ebola in Ghana. A word to the wise...