The project, being supported with funding from the Rotary Foundation through Rotarians in Canada, USA, India and Ghana, is estimated to cost $160,000.

It is expected to be completed within 12 months.

The sod has been cut for the project to be executed by Clean Water and Sanitation Ghana.

Donkoase is a farming community identified as one of the 24 communities in six districts where open defecation and lack of access to clean water are high.

According to the World Bank's Report of 2020, 17.78 per cent of Ghana’s population has no access to decent toilets.

As a result, the Rotary Club seeks to replace old pit latrines with microflush toilets in some communities.

To help the situation, the Obuasi club is partnering the Rotary Club of Cape Coast Central and the Rotary E-Club Premier 7040, Montreal, Canada, to construct 30 mechanised boreholes, 10 toilets for schools as well as 160 household toilets for those identified communities in six districts to serve 25,000 people.

Humanity, goodwill

The outgoing President of the Obuasi Rotary Club, Sarwan Kumar, said the club, aware of the challenges of the communities in Obuasi and its surrounding areas had decided to take action in fulfilment of its vision to promote goodwill and provide service to others.

He emphasised that members of the Rotary Club of Obuasi were committed to helping the less-privileged in the society to improve their living standards.

The President-elect of the Rotary Club of Obuasi, Elizabeth Hamenoo, said as a humanitarian group, the club had always supported impoverished communities to have access to basic social amenities.

She said the club remained committed to the provision of clean water, sanitation in Ghana and to end open defecation.

The Chief of Donkoase, Nana Kojo Ntosuo III, lauded the Rotary Club of Obuasi for leading the charge to serve humanity.