By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Director General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Kodjo Mensah-Abrampah has called on government, and policymakers in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector address bottlenecks affecting the achievement of the goal six of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He warned that Ghana risks losing out on all the 17 goals if it fails to meet goals six, which is “Clean Water and Sanitation” for all.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.
According to experts, Goal Six of the 17 Goals anchors the rest of the 16 Goals, thus failure to achieve Goal Six will result in missing out on all the remaining 16 Goals.
Addressing the gathering at the 3rd Executive Breakfast Conversation, held in Accra on Tuesday, 14, May 2024, Dr Mensah-Abrampah explained that the SDG Goal Six is meant to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation- described as “the gateway to improve health, productivity and socio economic development,” for all.
“Water and sanitation is essential for all sectors, be it the automobile industry, agriculture industry, mining, tourism among others need quality water to thrive.
Ghana’s quest for industrialization cannot be achieved if issue of WASH are not seriously addressed,” the NDPC DG opined.
Dr Kodjo Mensah-Abrampah, who chaired the event, said if the nation wanted to reach the target of being a developed nation by 2057, it should look at its development forecast holistically in terms of policies, institutional arrangement, capacity building, financing; and reporting for people to have a better appreciation of WASH for fuller participation. Dr Mensah- Abrampah noted with worry that only one percent of the national resources goes into an important sector like WASH.
According to him, although there have been some improvements made in the provision of water, the challenge now is water quality. Dr Mensah-Abrampah called for increased efforts to reduce plastic use, of which its improper management had choked the nation’s water bodies and further threatened the development of tourism.
“You’re in Ghana, and want to swim in the waters, see all these plastics”, the NDPC DG said in a low tone, and added, “you buy one kenkey in Ghana, and they wrap it with four plastics.”
We all will have to find an alternative solution to the sanitation challenges especially alongside our beautiful beaches to maximize our tourism potential, he added.
The Executive Breakfast Conversation, is an initiative of the World Vision Ghana (WVG), and supported by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, the Ghana WASH Journalists Network (GWJN) and Media Coalition against Open Defecation (M-CODe)
