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As part of activities to mark this year’s World Water Day celebration on March 22, the National Planning Committee and Partners organized a knowledge sharing session on Webinar on the topic “How safe is the water in your home”. The UN established World Water Day in 1993 to focus on the sustainable use of water resources and ultimately address the global water crisis. This was done in recognition of the importance of water resources around the world. Thus, every March 22nd, World Water Day focuses on a particular theme.

This year’s theme, “Accelerating Change” echoes the need to accelerate Change through Partnership and Cooperation. The task of accelerating change is a collaborative effort by all. Since water is everyone’s business, we must be the change we want to see. Every individual then must take responsibility for utilizing water wisely and refraining from activities that pollute it. The systems we rely on require water: sanitation, healthcare, education, business, and industry. Individual adjustments in behaviour toward water must be implemented across all sectors and coordinated across borders to solve the water and sanitation challenges facing us. The National Planning Committee emphasized on how to accelerate and ensure water safety in our homes, assess the impact of floods on water quality, and reflect on ways to accelerate our partnership to address the water crisis in Ghana. For the public to have a better understanding of these issues, the committee will undertake three webinars topics, namely, a. How safe is the Water in your Home? b. Flooding and its impacts on water quality c. Accelerating change through partnership: the Case study of the Tamale Water Fund How safe is the Water in your Home?

Globally, nearly two billion people use either unimproved drinking-water sources or improved sources that are faecal-contaminated. There are close to half a million diarrheal deaths in low- and middle-income countries, including Ghana, which are attributed to inadequate drinking water. To address this situation, the Webinar would look at how households could improve the quality of drinking-water and reduce diarrheal disease. Touching on managing safe drinking water at home on “Webinars”, the head of sales and business development at Polytank Ghana Limited, James Obeng Gyedu, mentioned that not cleaning your polytank regularly can help facilitate water contamination in the home. Therefore, regular cleaning of the polytank both inside and outside is a must in the home, this is because periodic cleaning helps prevent growth, which carries toxins harmful to humans.

On his part, the Pricipal Technologist at the Water Research Institute, Ing. Frank Teye Oblim explained that the quality of harvested rainwater from the sampled households was satisfactory. Most of the parameters fell within the WHO/GSA guideline values for drinking water. Ing. Oblim said relatively lower values of the filtered water compared to the raw water suggests that filtration is key in ensuring that most particles are removed from the rainwater. The quality of rainwater is generally good but may not be free from some impurities.