GGBL inaugurates GHC 208,000 integrated water and sanitation facility

Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited (GGBL) has inaugurated an Integrated Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (I-WASH) project for the Krowor Cluster of schools and the immediate communities within the Nungua Township in commemoration of World Water Day.

The GH₵208,000 project comprises a 60,000-litre capacity overhead and underground storage facility connected to a network of nine standpipes dotted across the cluster. The facility also includes a newly-constructed 10-seat water closet block and a refurbished 20-seat water closet connected to a mechanised borehole system.

The I-WASH project, funded by Diageo’s Employee Giving for Good programme, is set to provide sustainable access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation for over 5,000 pupils and teachers at the cluster of schools, and over 4,000 community members.

As part of the project, Unilever Ghana Ltd. -- through its Lifebuoy soap brand, will also support the cluster of schools with hygiene and hand-washing education and supplies to embed a hygienic and healthy culture among pupils in the schools.

Lynne Smethurst, Global Head of Community Investment, Diageo Plc -- the parent company of GGBL, said: “Diageo and GGBL believe that sustainable access to water and sanitation empowers our communities directly and indirectly. We have seen at first-hand the impact these projects make in the lives of the communities we invest in -- improved health, increase in school attendance, women empowerment and restored dignity for all.

“According to the World Water Development report 2012, some 2.5 billion people worldwide, including almost one billion children, live without basic sanitation -- resulting in the death of a child every 20 seconds and 1.5 million preventable deaths every year. Through our Water of Life programme, Diageo and GGBL are making a difference in our world and contributing toward realisation of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal 7 on water and sanitation.

“This project, funded by donations from Diageo employees globally, is our way of changing the picture, one school, one community and one health centre at a time.”

Preba Greenstreet, Corporate Relations Director of GGBL, on her part said: “GGBL together with Diageo Foundation has since 2007, invested in 64 projects across the country, spanning from hospitals to rural communities. Last year, for instance, we provided accessible drinking water to about 170,000 beneficiaries at the Maamobi Hospital in Accra, and Tamale West and Central Hospitals in the Northern Region, a testament to our commitment to empower our communities”.

The Member of Parliament for Krowor, Nii Oakley Quaye-Kumah, commended GGBL for supporting the cluster of schools. He said: “It’s good to know that through this intervention these schools and the surrounding communities now have a reliable water supply and adequate places of convenience, which will ensure that pupils stay in their classrooms and not loiter about looking for places of convenience -- as well as protect our environment, especially our beaches which hitherto were used as places of convenience. I urge the leadership of these schools and the community to work together to manage these facilities to ensure their long-term sustainability. I also commend Unilever Ghana Ltd. for supporting the school with hygiene products”.

The Minister of Education, who was represented by Mad. Rabiana Azara, commended the Brewery giant GGBL for its kind gesture and admonished the pupils and people in the community to put the facility to good use and ensure regular maintenance.
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