SaniPath Tool used in the New Juaben Operation Clean Communities campaign

"Operation Clean Communities" launched in March 2021 by the New Juaben Traditional Council. The campaign will be implemented in three phases. The Pre-Intervention Phase will adapt and utilize the SaniPath Exposure Assessment Tool for use in New Juaben, Ghana to assess the various exposure pathways of contamination and behavioral patterns that influence exposure. The Intervention Phase will seek to disrupt the dominant exposure pathways identified from the SaniPath Tool through community health and sanitation education, cleanup initiatives, and public stakeholder engagement. The Post-Intervention Phase will be conducted one year after the Intervention Phase and will deploy another SaniPath Exposure Assessment to measure the impact of "Operation Clean Communities".

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The international implementation committee is made up of representatives from: International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC); Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA; New Juaben Traditional Council and its institutional members.

MoU Established with School of Hygiene in Accra to Offer Course on the SaniPath Tool

SaniPath is excited to announce that we have officially established a MoU with the School of Hygiene in Accra to develop a course for students and mid-level environmental health practitioners on the SaniPath Tool. Training of faculty at the School of Hygiene is planned for early 2021. This effort has been coordinated by our African training hub leads at TREND.

Food Safety Guidelines released by MLGRD in Ghana

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) released National Food Safety Guidelines to be implemented by Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana. The document provides a framework to guide MMDAs to address food safety issues that occur along the value chain. These guidelines will help local governments implement safe food handling practices by providing key regulations and standards that serve as templates for MMDAs to implement in their jurisdictions.

The SaniPath Tool was deployed in neighborhoods in Kumasi and Accra and the results revealed high levels of E. coli contamination on raw produce and street food. These results were used by local public health professionals to prioritize efforts to address food safety in Ghana. The new guidelines will be used to ensure the highest level of food safety standards are adhered to throughout the food supply chain to prevent fecal contamination from occurring and to improve public health. To view the results from the exposure assessments, visit the SaniPath Results Dashboard page and select "Accra" and "Kumasi" on the left-hand side of the page.

Photo credit and information: "MLGRD Launches National Food Safety Guidelines" by Eric Nana Yaw Kwafo.