The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) global hand washing day has been marked at Manso-Datano in the Amansie-West District with a call for a more aggressive national campaign.
The campaign is to target mothers and children to get them to take to the practice of washing the hands with soap.
Mr. Ernest Agudetse, Extension Services Specialist, Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), said this could significantly help to achieve the millennium development goal (MDG) goal of reducing deaths among children under the age of five by two-thirds.
He said the practice among mothers and child care givers needed to go up by at least 50 per cent by next year.
That with children between six and 15 years should also see same percentage rise.
Mr. Agudetse said everything should be done to assist people, especially children, to have a better understanding of why they should wash the hands with soap after visiting the washroom, before eating and after playing.
He said they have to be encouraged to stick with this good practice � the most effective and inexpensive way to prevent diarrhea and acute respiratory infections.
It is estimated by the United Nations Children�s Fund (UNICEF) that diarrhea and pneumonia claim lives in excess of 3.5 million children before their fifth birthday every year, worldwide.
Mr Agudetse said in Ghana about 40,000 lives could be saved annually through hand washing.
�Choose hand washing, choose health� was the theme of this year�s celebration� and the aim was to promote behavioral change and not just awareness creation.
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