The big climate change summit was due to be held in Glasgow, Scotland later this year but then COVID-19 came along, the conference centre was converted into a field hospital and the meeting was postponed. We will have to wait until November 2021 for the global community to make progress and agree on solutions to the climate crisis through that platform. But while we have to wait another year for stronger multi-lateral action, there are, as we discussed in our last Amplify, parallels in tackling COVID-19 and climate change and lessons to learn. All the current pain, stress and extra work in tackling COVID-19 may yet serve us well in adapting to the even bigger threat that is climate change.

National Development Planning Commission - NDPC in collaboration with IRC and partners is disseminating the findings and is further engaging relevant stakeholders on the stories starting with the launch of the Good Practice for WASH in Ghana booklet

COVID-19 and #BlackLivesMatter are a wake-up call for leaders to take a closer look at WASH knowledge generation.

The impact of COVID-19 has been unprecedented on all areas of peoples lives globally, on a scale barely imagined only a few months ago. From the ever growing infection rates and death toll as the virus travelled around the world, to the light it shined on the huge disparities of impact on different populations as, on the one hand, day labourers struggled to feed themselves and their families whilst in lock-down with no resources, whilst others hoarded toilet paper...

One innovation in Asutifi North has been the introduction of kiosks at water points where vendors sell a range of sanitation products. The kiosks not only provide shelter from the sun and rain but improve the livelihoods of water vendors and help to make water systems more sustainable.

Vivian Kumah has been the lead nurse in charge of the community health planning and service centre at Gambia No 1 for about four and half years – and getting water had been a problem for almost the whole of that time.

Some of the cleanest and smartest toilets in the whole Bongo district are found at Foe Community Health and Planning Services (CHPS). This community health post serves more than 2,280 people in four communities across an area stretching up to the border with Burkina Faso.

Pure water has become a powerful selling point for communities in the Wassa East district of Ghana, proving that people will indeed pay for water if they can be sure it is safe. Four years ago (2016), a little over half of the population of Wassa East (56%) in the Western Region had access to safe water, a situation the Wassa East Chief Executive, Hon. Wilson Arthur, described as “scary”.

IRC Ghana, an international think-and-do tank that works with governments, NGOs, businesses and people around the world to find long-term solutions to the global crisis in water, sanitation and hygiene services and integrated water resources management (IWRM) is looking for a dynamic, well organized and result-oriented person to fill the position of: Program Officer WASH.

As part of the war against COVID-19, Ghana has taken several actions: President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo established a coronavirus fund to alleviate hardship and donated three months of his own salary, while a separate 1.2 billion Ghanaian cedi (over $205 million) Coronavirus Alleviation Programme includes funds to pay for water bills for all Ghanaians for three months — from April to June — and to provide water tanker services to vulnerable communities.