The Ghana Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector Development Programme (GWASHSDP) 2021-2030 has launched in Accra to transform water resources management in Ghana.
The GWASHSDP is a comprehensive document that touches WASH activities, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals 6 (SDG6) which relates to access to clean drinking water and good sanitation for all by 2030.
Launching the programme yesterday, Ms Cecilia Abena Dapaah, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources said the objective of the document was to ensure an effective coordination and implementation of WASH activities.
“This would immensely contribute to achieving national, continental and global visions, goals and targets for integrated water resources management and sustainable WASH services for everyone living and working in Ghana by 2030,” Ms Dapaah said.
In addition, the sector minister told the stakeholders in WASH and the World Bank team that the overarching goal of GWASHSDP was to ensure that efforts to deliver WASH services were well-coordinated to address key sector challenges that limit the provision and sustenance of WASH services and the conservation of water resources, through strategic planning, institutional development and system strengthening.
Ms Dapaah outlined other objectives of GWASHSDP as encouraging wider stakeholder participation in the planning, implementation, monitoring, and reporting on WASH services and activities, prioritising positive and sustainable behaviour change in safe WASH practices and ensuring accountability and transparency.
The sector minister stated that the government and its partners were continually retooling and enhancing capacity of sector agencies to overcome challenges that had bedeviled the sector, so as to achieve SDG 6, which is to ensure sustainable basic water and sanitation services for all by the year 2030.
She said thousands of toilet facilities and water projects had been completed, while more projects were ongoing under the World Bank funded Greater Accra Metropolitan Area-Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA-SWP) and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area-Sanitation and Water Project (KUMA-SWP).
The minister said there were still challenges in the WASH sector, adding that it was estimated that $8 million was required for water resources management; $420 million for urban water supply; $350 million for rural and community water supply; $800 million for sanitation; $700 and $100 million for urban and rural areas, respectively; $60 million for hygiene and another $60 million for system strengthening and institutional development.
Mrs Dapaah urged stakeholders in WASH and partners to use the document as a guide in developing programmes and projects for implementation.
Touching on some projects under GAMA-SWP and KUMA-SWP, Ms Dapaah said that the 282km of pipelines laid under the water sub-component of the project led to the increase in access to sustainable water services to more than 420,000 people, representing 85,000 households in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area.
Aside that, the minister notes that a total of 129 of such institutional sanitation facilities were under construction for beneficiary schools in the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area.
Mr Saroj Kumar Jha, Global Director, Water Practice Group, World Bank, pledged the bank’s support for Ghana, noting that Ghana made tremendous progress in the WASH sector.
He said every person needed basic sanitation, adding that as there were limited funding for WASH activities it was important for government to develop a well thought-through financing strategies for water and sanitation.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
