HEALTH AND SANITATION
One of the first things you notice in the Kwahu region
is the need for daily water. We have the luxury of
strolling into our kitchen or bathroom and turning on
a faucet to get a glass of water. In Ghana, women and
children walk to wells, rivers, and lakes to get water.
They put five gallons of water on their heads and walk
back home.
As I travelled through the many villages, I asked my host,
“Why women and children?” His response was, “The
men all leave early for their jobs. Many are farmers,
fishermen, or merchants. It’s the women and children’s
job to gather the water.”
A visit to the water gathering locations made me realise
how right Thachenkary and Kevin were regarding water.
The quality of the water was poor in the rivers and
lakes. Many of the wells were dug wells, with muddy
and undrinkable water. Some of the dug wells were dry
because it was the end of the dry season. The wells
would fill up again during the rainy season.
There are a number of well projects, funded by charitable
organisations. The new wells are boreholes descending
300–500 feet below ground. These newer wells provide
clean water that tests safe to drink. With all the new
projects, there is still an inadequate number of boreholes
in the region.
In addition to my water and sanitation issues,
everyone on the team had a responsibility to the
medical mission. Thachenkary, Kevin, and Renee, the
head nurse, asked me to watch what was going on
during the village outreach and help improve how t hey
serve the people. The surgical team asked me to help
with the hospital.
Admiring the work of the doctors and nurses during a
village visit, I immediately realised that it was like being
on a construction project without a foreman. Everyone
was doing their job, but no one was coordinating their
efforts. As a result, sometimes the doctors were sitting
around waiting to see their next patient. Other times, the
doctors were inundated with patients.
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problem. A larger autoclave, shipped in a container from
the United States, needed to be installed.
GAS SYSTEM
The medical gas system had to be abandoned when
leaks in the piping were identified. The exact location of
the leak or leaks had not been determined. The medical
gas tanks were brought into the operating theatre.
The surgical team also needed help to coordinate their
schedule. On day one, approximately 300 people arrived
for screening to see who would qualify for surgery in the
next two weeks.
By the middle of the first week, I visited the plumbing
school for the region. The plumbing school is a four-year
programme for post-secondary students. The age of
the students ranged from 16 to 22, depending on how
quickly they could graduate from secondary school. I
was asked to teach for two days at the school. My class
was for the first-year students who were just getting
interested in the plumbing profession. The students
asked to hear about plumbing in the United States. They
also wanted to know how much money plumbers make
in the United States.
My first question to the students was, “How many of
you use indoor plumbing at home?” No one raised their
hand. Then they began to pick on the student they called
‘the rich kid’ because he had a sink inside his home. I
told them that their goal had to be that by the time they
reached my age, everyone in the region would have
indoor plumbing.
PLUMBER PROTECTS THE HEALTH OF A NATION
With eager first-year students, I introduced the
phrase, “The Plumber Protects the Health of the
Villagers show Julius
Ballanco how they
collect water.
Continued on page 47 >>
When it came to dispensing drugs, the person helping
the doctors would have to search random baggies to find
the drug being prescribed. There were more people in
each village than the doctors could possibly see in a day.
It resulted in a first-come, first-served situation seeing
the three doctors.
The surgical team had other problems in the hospital.
The surgical instruments were being prepared by boiling
them. A new autoclave helped to temporarily solve that
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
October 2018 Volume 24 I Number 8