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.

On Thursday May 7, 2020, the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) in collaboration with the Resource Centre Network (RCN) and through the Watershed programme organized a webinar under the RCN National Level Alliance Platform (NLLAP) to discuss the role and response of Ghana’s Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the wake of the unfolding reality of Covid-19.

Every now and again the rich world has its nose rubbed in the true meaning of poverty. The coronavirus pandemic is but the latest example. We need to make sure it's the last. As I write, aid agencies around the world are trying to ramp up their reaction to COVID-19. Yet my fear is that all this frenetic activity may do little more than underline the brutal reality that there is really not a lot we can do at short notice. Or rather, that the meaningful work we can do, of reinforcing basic public health messaging and measures, is going to seem woefully inadequate.