Madam Veronica Bekoe has been honoured by President Akufo Addo at the National Honours and Awards 2023, held at the Accra International Conference Centre.
Madam Veronica Bekoe is well known for being the brain behind the popular name; ‘Veronica Bucket’, during the covid-19 era. The National Honours and Awards 2023 ceremony was strictly by invitation.
The event was organized to honour and celebrate individuals who have made significant accomplishments in various fields, including civil service, military, prisons service, education and public health, agriculture, commerce and industry, the judiciary, scientific and other research, sports, culture and the arts, and the financial sector, are honored with national awards.
Madam Vero as she is affectionately called was among the dignitaries who received the covetous order of the Volta individual award for Covid-19 innovation. Her Veronica bucket innovation undoubtedly became and has become a potent remedy in the fight and combat of communicable diseases.
Madam Veronica Bekoe is a Ghanaian Biological Scientist. She is best known for her contribution to the invention and discovery of the Veronica Bucket, which is used to prevent the spread of the communicable Corona Virus which hanged around the necks of the country and the entire globe as a whole.
Madam Veronica’s invention came in handy when the need to regularize the washing of hands with soap under running water arose. This is due to the sophisticated nature of her Veronica bucket. Though imitated and created in various ways to suit occasions and places during the pandemic era, the veronica bucket became a global invention and as such contributed immensely directly and indirectly to the curbing of COVID-19.
The Veronica bucket was a mechanism for hand washing originating in Ghana which consists of a bucket of water with a tap fixed at the bottom, mounted at hand height, and a bowl at the bottom to collect waste water. The Veronica bucket serves as a simple way to encourage proper hand washing using flowing water.
Bekoe in an interview stated that the bucket was originally made to help her and her colleagues wash their hands under running water after each lab session. She said, “We are used to washing hands in a bowl with others washing in the same water, which will do more harm than good.” These colleagues were contaminating their hands rather than decontaminating them. In addition to the COVID benefit of hand washing, the Veronica bucket is also essential for areas where potable water is not readily available.