Since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Ghana, one of the most mentioned requirements recommended by the Ghana Health Service for hand sanitation is the Veronica Bucket.
This simple bucket with a spigot at the bottom to enable the washing of hands under running water was invented by Mrs Veronica Bekoe, a biological scientist who worked at the Public Health and Reference Laboratory of the Ghana Health Service from 1972 to 2008.
The invention consists of a wooden stand that holds the bucket, towel and soap, and a washbasin placed below the spigot to collect the running water. It is usually used at hospitals and schools to encourage handwashing but now, it is spotted in front of businesses, malls and public institutions as part of the fight against coronavirus.
Mrs Veronica Bekoe narrating the inspiration behind her creation to Fati Shaibu Ali on the special edition of International Women’s Day on the Happy Morning Show indicated that the buckets were originally made to aid her colleagues in the lab to enable them to wash their hands with running water.
As was the custom, Mrs Bekoe noted that she and her colleagues were used to washing their hands in a bowl of water after working because not all the facilities had water running out of the taps.
The phenomenon, which she described as doing more harm than good had to be stopped one way or the other.
“We normally have water problems. Some of the facilities did not have running water. And they were just using bowls to wash their hands… the bowl with the water sitting there being used even by one person is only clean the first time he or she washes their hands. If he/she does not throw that water away, they would rather be contaminating themselves.
These bowls of water are used by more than one person, so instead of decontaminating their hands after working, they are contaminating their hands,” she noted.
Veronica Bekoe attended the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology between 1968 to 1972 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology (Hons) in Biology/Biological Sciences. Until 2008, she worked at the National Public Reference Laboratory where she became its head and the Laboratory focal person for the National AIDS/STI Control Program (NACP).
It was during her time at the laboratory that she was inspired to invent the Veronica Bucket which has significantly improved hand-sanitation and general hygienic practices thereby helping reduce diarrhoea cases in Ghana and other African countries.
Mrs Bekoe’s left the National Public Reference Laboratory and started working with the National AIDS Control Programme as the Focal Point for guidelines for Quality Assurance in HIV testing, evaluation of HIV test kits and structuring, training and implementation of proficiency testing in HIV serology.
