MARCH IS WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE MONTH

This month we shall be supporting the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) theme.

At this time it is perhaps pertinent to update the Jansa (Ashanti) project which the club was involved with in conjunction with the area 7 (Wigan Cluster Clubs) which was the last WASH project we were involved with.
The Project
Jansa Village is a settlement in Ghana of 545 people making up 45 families. They had to share just one borehole for water, which was very old and ineffective and they only had one slat toilet block for the whole village. The main occupation of the villagers is basket weaving and whilst they grow their own food it is insufficient for their needs.Our aim was to turn an impoverished village into a thriving one, with clean water, sanitation, education, food growing, food processing and trading.
The existing unreliable borehole was replaced and  45 household toilets have been built at an estimated cost of £13700. 
The project was coordinated by the Ashanti Development, a small, highly effective, London-based charity that works in Ghana, primarily bringing clean water and toilets to villages.
will provide 3 toilets. 

Facts about lack of water and adequate sanitation

It is a fact that in any 7 days most of the villagers will suffer from diarrhoea for 5 days due to the lack of sanitation. This has a debillitating effect on the villagers productivity plus the dangers of severe illness. With inflation running at more than 25% time is of the essance to complete this project within the budget.
Two of the key Rotary objectives relate to Water and Sanitation so this project is consistent with Rotary aims.

 The latest update from Ashanti has now been received. Feb 23

MESSAGE FROM JANSA VILLAGE

The Chief and Elders and the whole community of Jansa Village send their greetings to the Rotary Club and ask that God should bless them and reward them for their great generosity.  The community is delighted with the borehole that the Rotary Club gave them.  Now they no longer drink stream water, which is often polluted, and in consequence their health has improved greatly.   The household latrines are also much cleaner and safer to use than defecating in the bush. 
 
(When Ashanti Development visited recently, we found that the village was looking after the borehole very well.    Before they had been given latrines for each household, the community had sometimes used traditional communal latrines.  These traditional latrines, which in our view were a major health hazard, have now been demolished.)