Our ability to become Handwashing Heroes is under a serious threat -Ghanaian children to Gov’t

Children from various schools in the Ashaiman Municipality in the Greater Accra Region are asking the government and its assignees how they (children of Ghana) can become Handwashing Heroes like their counterparts in Europe, America, and other advanced countries when almost all the country’s rivers are destroyed with poisonous substances.

According to them, the future of Ghanaian children and grandchildren depends on the water being destroyed today by illegal miners.

Addressing participants at the commemoration of the 2025 edition of the Global Handwashing Day, under the theme “Be a Handwashing Hero,” organised by the Rural Water and Development Programme Ghana (RWDPGH), in Ashaiman, speaker and speakers called for an immediate end to illegal mining known in the Ghanaian parlance as Galamsay.

Feli Acheampong, of the Church of Christ School Complex, Ashaiman, in his delivery, noted that the ability of Ghanaian children to be Handwashing Heroes is under a serious threat — a threat duty bearers must confront together.

According to him, the power of handwashing is totally dependent on one essential ingredient: clean water. Saying “we cannot wash our hands effectively if our rivers are contaminated. We cannot protect our families if the water we rely on for life is poisoned. Our focus on clean hands must now lead us to focus on clean water sources”.

On her part, Miss Alimatu Salifu Abugri of Ashaman Presby School A, said water is our life, but galamsey is slowly taking that life away from us.

She explained that Mercury and other dangerous chemicals used in illegal mining kill fish, poison farmlands, and destroy the natural beauty God blesses Ghana with. So, on this Global Handwashing Day, I want to send a message — not only about washing hands but also about protecting the water that washes our hands.

“I appeal to the President of Ghana, our chiefs, and every citizen to rise and say no to galamsey. Let us enforce our laws and protect our rivers — the Pra, the Ankobra, the Birim, and all others — so that we can all have clean water for drinking and handwashing.

If we truly want to be handwashing heroes, we must also be guardians of clean water.

Let us teach our friends and families to stop polluting rivers, to plant trees near water bodies, and to use water wisely,” Miss Abugri reiterated.

Speaking in an interview with the media, Former Director, Extension and Essential Services – Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), Mrs. Theodora Adomako-Adjei, called for improved and deliberate hand washing practice among all age groups.

According to her, only 48% of Ghanaians practice hand washing, a situation she said needs to be scaled up.

By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH