Monrovia – As part of efforts to eradicate Covid-19, Bobby Whitefield, the Chairman at the National Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Commission has cautioned individuals to watch out for its inspectors as they embark on enforcing, monitoring and collecting data relative to the handwashing activities in the country.
The WASH Commission is the head of the WASH pillar under the Incident Management System (IMS) in the fight against COVID-19.
Speaking to journalists at the Head Office of the WASH Commission in Sinkor, Mr. Whitefield says improved access to handwashing facilities will help defeat the deadly coronavirus that is ravaging the country’s struggling health sector.
“Going forward, you are going to see over 50 WASH inspectors, WASH Monitors beginning with four counties. They are going to be deployed by the WASH Commission, fully mobile to make sure that they carry on inspection, monitoring, data collection and enforcement,” Mr. Whitefield said.
According to the WASH Commission Chairman Margibi, Bong, Grand Bassa and Montserrado Counties are the four counties the inspection team will begin with and later move to other counties.
Mr. Whitefield further said, “Our partner WaterAid has just conducted training for our WASH practitioners across the country over the past three days to improve their knowledge on handwashing behavior change. We are working with other partners like UNICEF, USAID, Action Against Hunger to ensure that our WASH intervention in this fight gets results.”
“You will see WASH inspectors at your premises, at your schools, at your churches, your mosques or at your offices. They are not coming for confrontation; they are coming to make sure that you do the right thing to save your life and the life around you.”
“Not only to wash your hands but we are going to collect the much-needed data. You see, the collection of data is the best ammunition in this fight. It helps us strategize and put our response in the right direction. We must be able to collect data on handwashing behavior and that data can only be collected by trained WASH Commission staff,” he said.
Mr. Whitefield promised that his team will enforce some standards on washing hands and educate individuals on “handwashing behavior change”.
He added: “We are going to change this nation’s handwashing behavior from one percent access to handwashing facilities to 50 or 60 percent. This is a target we have set and we need to improve on washing our hands.”
Despite the number of people getting affected with the COVID-19 virus coming down, WASH Commission Chairman says they at the WASH Commission will not rest until Liberia is declared coronavirus free.
“When it comes to all of the measures put into place, those measures are all WASH-related public health measures. Our hope is to bring the curve down,” he said.
Mr. Whitefield added: “Until we have a good number of our people vaccinated, hand washing, masks wearing and physical or social distancing remains our best line of defense against COVID-19.”