Known as Pipe It Up Ghana, the board game designed and made in Hungary is a collaboration between Pureco Group, a Hungarian company, and Jospong Group.

It is designed to help children to have fun while at the same time learning how to promote sanitation and protect the environment, particularly water bodies.

The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, launched the game at a ceremony in Accra.

It was attended by officials of the Pureco Group, the government, school children from the 10 schools that have so far been trained on how to play the game, and the Hungarian Ambassador to Ghana, Tamàs Endre Feh?r.

Discouraging galamsey

Ms Dapaah called on Ghanaians to cry out and stop the phenomenon of galamsey that was polluting water bodies across the country.

She said the people must also frown on the activities of foreigners who came to the country at the invitation of others to destroy the water bodies and lands.

"River Pra and River Ankobra are calling on us. River Birim has turned into something like palm nut soup. The big fishes in River Tano are now extinct. We treat our water bodies now with impunity. There is no flora, there is no fauna in our river bodies. The solution lies in our bosom. We are sinning against God by destroying our water bodies," she said.

Ms Dapaah said if the destruction of the water bodies continued, the country risked losing these natural resources.

“If our water bodies have mouths, they will speak. What are we going to tell the future generation — the children who are now collaborators? Let us respect nature. Nature is for our good. Let us stop open defecation to create a healthy environment for all of us,” she added.

Pipe It Up

About 500,000 schoolchildren are expected to be trained each year for the next three years to play the game.

It would be distributed to schools where the students receive the training, and then competitions would be organised among those schools.

The Executive Chairman of Jospong Group of Companies, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, expressed the commitment of his company to sponsor schools that had Zoom kids with facilities and logistics to help them enhance sanitation on their premises.

Bilateral relations

Mr Feh?r said Hungary had a long time historical bond with West Africa, and more specifically Ghana, pointing out that economic and trade relations played an important part in the bilateral cooperation between Ghana and Hungary, while the water industry had always enjoyed a special focus.

On the board game, he expressed the confidence that it would contribute to the development of future generations by teaching them how to manage and respect natural resources, including water.