Yorkshire Water education adviser’s African factfinding adventure

06/04/1999

Yorkshire Water education adviser Ruth Bell will be one of a 20-strong party shortly to visit the African country of Ghana to witness in operation projects the national charity WaterAid has helped fund.

Ruth, who lives in Harrogate and is based at the company's education centre in Headingley, Leeds, is a member of Yorkshire Water's executive committee for the charity - the only one in the UK to specialise in just three things: water, sanitation and hygiene education in the Third World.

During her week in Ghana, where 35% of the population do not have access to safe water, the former PE teacher will visit project sites, meet staff involved in the aid programmes and see for herself how villages are utilising the schemes to their full advantage.

Ruth, who will arrive in the Ghanaian capital Accra on May 16, said: "This is going to be a fantastic opportunity for me to see how money raised in Yorkshire by our staff and customers is being put to use in Ghana. The good thing about the charity is that it doesn't just install, say, a water pump in a village and leaves it at that. It teaches them not only how to install the equipment, but more importantly how to maintain it.

"Also the villagers are taught about health implications, such as siting toilets away from the water supply and why they should avoid drinking stagnant water. A water supply in a village also means women and children don't have to spend everyday hours on end to the closest well."

From Accra the delegation will move on to the villages of Obuasi, Kumasi and Tamale.

In 1997-98 WaterAid helped 600,000 people gain access to safe water and sanitation. To date the charity has helped more than five million people in Africa and Asia to help themselves.