By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
Stakeholders in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector who converged at the 3rd Executive Breakfast Conversation held in Accra have charged government to, as a matter of urgency, establish a National Sanitation Authority (NSA) to help coordinate sanitation activities as well as implement policies and programs put together by the Sanitation and Water Resources Ministry.
According to them, even though the sanitation ministry has been created to formulate policies and programs geared towards addressing the country’s sanitation challenges, it is just hanging in the air without legs to function properly.
Discussants at the 3rd Executive Breakfast Conversation, an initiative of 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), were of the opinion that what the sector needs to make the sanitation ministry properly functional to address Ghana’s sanitation concerns is the establishment of the NSA.
“Take for instance, the Ministry of Health and look at the number of agencies coordinating and implementing policies of the ministry and one can clearly see that the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources is just a living shadow,” one of the discussants alluded.
They have thus reinforced their call for the strengthening of the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, and the establishment of National Sanitation Authority to give impetus to sanitation activities and drive water, sanitation, and hygiene for national development.
They were of the view that the nation had made some progress in the provision of water, but the challenge now is water quality and the need to fill the sanitation gap.
The establishment of the NSA, they pointed out, would be the agent to handle the daily operational activities of sanitation and hygiene.
The 2024 edition of Executive Breakfast Conversation was on the theme, “Repositioning Water and Sanitation As a Key Driver of National Development.”
Participants used the opportunity to discuss the enabling and catalytic role of WASH for accelerated growth and wellbeing and why the government should make it a national development priority.
The discussants at the dialogue noted that Ghana risks missing all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) if it fails to meet SDG Goal Six, 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.
Prof Simon Mariwah, a development geographer at the University of Cape Coast, in his delivery observed that sanitation was doing badly compared to water.
Even though the sanitation situation is said to have improved to 25 per cent according to the 2010 National Population and Housing Census, there is still more to do to scale up improved sanitation. He added.
In her welcome address, the National Director of WVG, Madam Laura Cristina Del Valle, admonished stakeholders to work together to remove barriers to the sustainable delivery of safe water and improved sanitation.
According to her, the theme “Repositioning Water and Sanitation As a Key Driver of National Development” was an excellent starting point for the many conversations the sector needs to have about the enabling and catalytic role of water and sanitation for accelerated growth and socioeconomic development and why it should be recognised as a national development priority.
“For believers in a better world for children, we recognise that nothing can be more important to child wellbeing, and that there is a lot more government, development partners, and all of us can do to facilitate sustainable access to safe water together in the spirit of mutual cooperation.
World Vision Ghana is committed to partnering state and non-state actors alike to co-create sustainable solutions to the water and sanitation challenges around us,” Madam Del Valle assured.