Healthcare clinic in Mali offers safer care following WaterAid initiative

Clean water, sanitized instruments and good hygiene conditions are the most critical prerequisites for a well-functioning healthcare service. In spite of this, almost one billion people still do not have clean water at the healthcare facility to which they entrust their care. The situation is worst in the African countries south of the Sahara desert.

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Photo: WaterAid/Basile Ouedraogo

Until 2019, the Talo health clinic in Mali did not have access to clean water. This made it very difficult to care safely for the 6,000 people who live in the area.

Salimata Dagnogo has worked as a midwife at the clinic for many years, and when WaterAid met with her in 2018, this is what she said about how the lack of water impacted her work:

"I like being a midwife and helping women bring children into the world. But without water, we cannot live up to the standards of good hygiene."

Later that same year, WaterAid started a project at the clinic that rapidly improved its level of hygiene. By February 2019, a new water system with toilets, sinks for handwashing and an incinerator for placentas was in place.

Access to clean water and the conditions for good hygiene now enables Salimata and her colleagues to offer better care and ensure that a greater number of women in Mali can give birth safely.

"Now I don't need to worry about infections in quite the same way when I help women give birth. We have clean water, soap for washing our hands and better conditions for washing and cleaning the instruments and delivery rooms," says Salimata.

Getinge has partnered with WaterAid to support vital efforts ensuring that a greater number of healthcare facilities around the world have access to clean water. Safe healthcare begins with clean water.

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