Mr Abudulai who said this on Monday during the Tamale Urban Sanitation project funded by the Netherlands Embassy through UNICEF and implemented by INTAGRAD the theme: “Our hands, our future” said it was part of activities to mark the Global Hand washing Day Celebration.

Mr Abdulai said the Global Hand washing Day is an annual global advocacy day dedicated to increasing awareness and understanding about the importance of hand washing with soap as an easy, effective and affordable way to prevent diseases.

He said pneumonia had been the number one cause of mortality among children under five years, killing an estimated 1.8 million children per year saying, “Diarrhoea and pneumonia together account for almost 3.5 million child deaths annually worldwide”.

He said the purpose of the project was to raise awareness on the benefits of hand washing with soap, which is to access and evaluate to reduce the cases of diarrhoea by 30 per cent and respiratory infections by 21 per cent in children under the age of five.