HEALTH AND SANITATION
47
Julius Ballanco surrounded by his plumbing students at the vocational school.
<< Continued from page 45
Nation.” This got their attention. It was
hard to imagine that they had never
heard the expression, nor did they
comprehend its meaning. As I was
explaining how important our profession
is for clean water and proper sanitation,
I found the poster used in the United
States on my computer. I showed the
poster on the projection screen of the
proud plumber protecting the people
while holding a pipe wrench.
It was then that I realised that the plumber
on our famous poster was white. All the
people at the bottom of the poster were
also white. As I looked around, I was the
only white person in the entire school.
Something needed to be corrected
regarding our poster.
On another day, I went to the field with the
third- and fourth-year students for their
practical training. The instructor showed
me the project and how he was allowing
the students to work on their own. The only
piping material on the project was plastic
pipe. I was informed they only use plastic
pipe because metallic pipe is too expensive.
That was understandable for such a poor
region of the country.
The toilet building being constructed by the
students was in a remote village with no
indoor plumbing. This would be the village
toilet facilities, having both a men’s and
ladies’ room. The hole for the septic tank
was dug by hand. The septic tank would be
built in place with blocks. I asked where the
septic fields would be. This was a foreign
concept, as it was explained that the liquid
run-off would connect to the ditch.
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
The ditches, often located on the side of
the road, were for both storm and liquid
sanitary waste. There was no treatment of
the liquid waste other than dilution from
the storm drainage. I thought back to the
founding of our country, where the solution
to pollution was dilution. That worked until
all our rivers and lakes became polluted.
The major build-up of wastewater treatment
plants only began in the 1960s.
Ghana has gone through a very good
educational effort regarding the need to only
drink water that has been treated or deemed
clean. Many street vendors sell half-litre
bags of water. You get used to biting off the
corner of the bag and drinking the water.
FILTER SYSTEMS
Filter systems have been provided to
villages to clean the water from the rivers,
streams, lakes, and dug wells. Kohler
donated a Clarity to demonstrate to the
region. The Clarity is a simple filter system
that can filter enough water for a family
of four on a daily basis. It works by gravity
without any need for external power.
My host took me to a new water treatment
plant that was constructed on the edge of
Lake Volta. The treatment plant is state-
of-the-art. The plant served more than 20
villages, supplying water to buildings having
indoor plumbing.
Even with the advances made with new
wells and the water treatment plant, there
is still a daily struggle for water for the
majority of the population. A common sight
is women and children walking down the
street with water buckets on their heads.
October 2018 Volume 24 I Number 8