By: Doreen Ampofo
Government is proposing the establishment of a Water Fund to be used in support of relevant agencies to provide clean potable water for Ghanaians.
The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Dr. Freda Prempeh, who announced this in Accra said the move has become necessary due to the lack of resources for Agencies and the fact that achieving SDG 6 on the provision of potable water is critical to achieving all other SDGs.
The Ghana Water Company Limited has said that the continuous pollution of water bodies through illegal mining has increased the cost of treating water due to the rising cost of aluminum sulphate.
The company’s Managing Director, Clifford Braimah, noted that the volume of water supply to the people has reduced because about 50 percent of the water is thrown out for high level of salinity instead of the usual five percent.
The Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources who did not mention the amount to be put in the fund, who should contribute and how much they should contribute, is hoping to get the buy-in from mining companies whose activities directly or indirectly affect the country’s water bodies.
Dr. Prempeh was speaking at the 2023 WASH Sector Performance Review which is discussing the importance of WASH for socio-economic transformation.
The Minister emphasized the importance of SDG 6 to attain the targets of the other SDGs on ending poverty, hunger, good health and wellbeing, gender equality, sustainable cities, and climate action as well as affordable and clean energy.
The targets of SDG six are to ensure universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all, improving water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials into water bodies and substantial increase in water-use efficiency by 2030.
According to Dr Freda Prempeh, to get closer to achieving these targets, it is important to have a dedicated fund to support the water sector. She explained that as it stands now most issues affecting water quality and the water sector in general are dealt with by the Ghana Water Company Limited, Community Water and Sanitation Agency, CWSA and the Water Resources Commission, which are all inadequately resourced.
This is a major challenge which cannot be allowed to continue. She believes stakeholders must be very innovative to address the challenges, a reason the Ministry is proposing a Water fund, which will be used as a dedicated fund to support the water sector under the WASH project.
“We have all the mining companies around us who are most often than not, whether illegal or legal, or whatever it is affecting our water bodies, they are contaminating our water bodies. Sand winning is also another issue. We have bottling companies as well. We have every sector of the economy using water and all the water problems fall under Ghana Water Company Limited and Community Water and Sanitation Agency. We are seeking your support to propose and advocate for a Water Fund to support whatever donor partners are giving us and to make sure that this dedicated fund is used to roll out more water facilities for the good people of Ghana” she noted.
On achievements in the sector, Dr Prempeh said the population with access to basic drinking water services increased from 78.0% in 2017 to 87.7% as at the end of 2021, as reported by the Ghana Statistical Service in the 2021 Population and Housing Census.
She said one-point-two million households acquired a basic sanitation service between the 2010 and 2021 census with over 300 thousand toilets constructed under programmes supported by UNICEF, the World Bank, Global Communities and RING project with funding from USAID, World Vision, African Development Bank, SNV and IRC.
Director General of the National Development Planning Commission, Dr Kodjo Mensah-Abrampa highlighted the need to take control of sources of water.
He said the pollution of water bodies resulting from illegal mining “galamsey” continues to be a hindrance to quality education, health and well-being.
Dr Mensah-Abrampa called for coordination among sector agencies and institutions to reduce waste and redundancy to achieve results.
A water and sanitation analyst at the World Bank, Ing. Harold Esseku, while admitting that the past year has not been easy for development partners in the sector, pledged to continue supporting the Ministry to achieve the SDG targets.
He was hopeful that the National Water Policy, which is 99 percent complete, will soon be rolled out to guide activities in the water sector. He also touched on the revision of the Environmental Health Sanitation Policy which he said will be completed next year to streamline operations.