The 2019 MOLE 30 Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) conference has ended in Ho with the emergence of a series of initiatives to support the campaign against sanitation and other water related issues.
They include the provision of adequate infrastructure for waste treatment, recycling and final disposal through partnerships with the private sector.
Additionally, government has to accelerate the establishment of the National Sanitation Authority (NSA) together with the National Sanitation Fund (NSF).
Mr Atta Archin, Vice President of Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) in a joint statement with Environmental Service providers of Ghana at the closing of the conference on Friday, said the commitments were made by the respective organisations during various plenary sessions.
The week-long event under the theme:30 years of multi-stakeholder WASH dialogue: Reflections and Prospects, attracted about 100 global players along sanitation value, coming from all the 16 regions to discuss how to improve sanitation and hygiene behaviours.
According to Mr Archin, they are convinced that the NSA would be the game changer and the panacea for addressing the numerous environmental sanitation challenges.
They were, however, not happy about the slow pace of progress made since the establishment of the Sanitation Ministry in many areas.
Among them are that open defecation remains unacceptably high at 22 per cent, less than 3 per cent of liquid waste is treated and disposed off safely and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) inability to enforce environmental sanitation bye-laws.
“We believe that Ghana has the capacity to overcome these challenges and achieve the vision of clean and prosperous nation if only government will demonstrate political will and commitment to prioritising and increasing investment in the sector with the support of its development partners,” he said.
Mr Archin noted that the two organisations have resolved to collaborate to ensure pro-poor environmental service delivery for all the citizenry.
He said they agreed to entrench resilience and adaption interventions into national sanitation and investment plans and scale up proven technologies targeting the communities.
They also encouraged all stakeholders to take advantage of this historic partnership by creating the enabling environment for effective and efficient environmental and sanitation service delivery.
FROM KAFUI GATI, HO
