An ingenious idea to promote the use of running water to wash hands especially in areas where potable water is not readily available has been adopted globally, with little known about the originator.
Although the Veronica buckets have gotten continental and global recognition and are being widely used as a miniature water reserve, the inventor has revealed that it is just a byproduct of the main purpose.
Biological scientist, Mrs Veronica Bekoe narrating the inspiration behind her creation to Wonder Hagan on GhanaWeb’s People and Places, indicated that the buckets were originally made to aid her colleagues in the lab to enable them wash their hands with running water.
As was 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.
“It was around that time that the people who sell porridge started putting the product in aluminium containers. So, it just occurred to me that if we could fix a tap to any container to produce running water, that could help.
“So, I made a prototype with aluminium sheets, made it into a container and had a tap fixed to it. We used it to provide running water all over the country in the laboratories to demonstrate how to use running water to wash hands,” she added.
Many have accused her of claiming credit for something which already was in existence and attaching her name to it. What they do not know, is that the inventor of the Veronica Buckets; Mrs. Veronica Bekoe, birthed the idea as far back as the ’90s.
The plan came into fruition after she got the endorsement from her supervisor at the time.
Today, she is glad her little solution to a problem is going beyond the laboratory and helping save lives, especially with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It has gone beyond way behind the health sector and it's being used everywhere, even beyond Ghana.”
