The Deputy Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Dr. Hannah Bissiw, said on Friday that good sanitation and good hygienic practices that people used to take pride appeared to have been thrown away in the quest for development and modernisation.
She said it was now time for all Ghanaians to put sanitation and hygiene in their proper perspective as sanitation is dignifying and good hygienic behaviour promotes health.
She said the transmission of H1N1, popularly known as "Swine Flu" could be prevented through regular hand washing with soap and water after coming into contact with both infected humans and other articles.
Dr Bissiw, who was speaking at the national launch of the Global Hand washing Day(GHD), under the theme "Saving Lives through Hand washing with Soap", in Cape Coast, said hand washing with soap, was a very simple act that could save many lives, especially the lives of children.
She said statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that diarrhoeal diseases kill 2-3 million children globally every year and that in Ghana diarrhoea was one of the major causes of illness and death among children.
Dr. Bissiw said although the primary focus was on school children, everybody was a target and that hand washing with soap should not be an occasional act but rather a way of life for everyone.
"By adding hand washing as a critical component to existing and ongoing sanitation activities, the critical health benefits necessary for countries including Ghana", she said.
It would make a significant contribution to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of reducing deaths among children under the age of 5 by 2015.
Mrs. Ama Benyiwa -Doe, Central Regional Minister, promised to champion the campaign also urged stakeholders and executives of the Millennium Challenge Authority to evolve plans to ensure the success of the programme.
She appealed to teachers to promote hand washing with soap in schools through innovative and exciting programmes such as drama, quizzes and health clubs so as to enable the children develop and inculcate the habit of hand washing with soap.
The Adontenhene of the Oguaa Traditional Area, Nana Kwamena Nyimfa VIII who chaired the function, also underscored the importance of the campaign and noted that children were potent agents to carry the message of hand washing with soap.
School children had earlier gone on a procession through the principal streets of the town, carrying placards depicting the importance of the campaign.
Some of the messages were "For truly clean hands, always wash with soap", "No hand washing with soap, no food", "Life is precious! Save your life by washing hands with soap always" and "There is something on your hands you cannot see, wash hands with soap".
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