By Florence Afriyie Mensah
Kumasi, July 01, GNA – The government has been urged to increase financing on sanitation and water, to drive a nationwide coverage of water and sanitation.
Mr George Asiedu, Coordinator for the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) Sanitation and Water Project, who made the call, indicated that although the various Metropolitan and District Assemblies had their roles to play, the government had to make financing available.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a professorial inaugural lecture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Mr Asiedu said prioritising sanitation and water should be continued because it was critical to the growth and development of every nation.
The lecture, was delivered by Professor Kwabena Britwum Nyarko, Provost of the College of Engineering at the KNUST, under the theme “Universal Access to Water and Sanitation Services: A Myth of Reality?”
In the lecture, Professor Nyarko called on the government to embark on a nationwide programme to ensure universal access to sanitation.
Mr. Asiedu emphasizing on the call, indicated that such suggestions were laudable, adding that the GAMA Sanitation and Water Project had “actually shown the way but is possible to increase access.”
According to him, the project currently provided 1,400 households with access to toilets every month, and if these continued at the pace with enough financing and support, Ghana could have nationwide coverage by 2030.
The Sustainable Development Goal Six, which outlines clean water and sanitation, he stressed, could become a reality if citizens made conscious efforts to stop open defecation, stop littering and took sanitation issues more seriously.
“So, if we don’t focus on sanitation and water we are not going to get the needed manpower, the economy is not going to grow.
A growing economy needs a healthy nation and healthy people and some of the things that can set us back is poor sanitation and access to unwholesome water.
We still have a long way to go although it has been acknowledged that the country has made some progress in the last few decades.
So, what we have done right in the past to bring us this far should be continued, the GAMA project is an example, with few additions, we can go far, Mr. Asiedu declared.
He said the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources had come up with the Ghana WASH Sector Development Programme, which incorporated all the possible actions that needed to be done and it was being pursued between now and 2030.
The government of Ghana, acting through the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, is implementing the GAMA Sanitation and Water Project with financing from the World Bank.
The objective is to increase access to improved water supply with emphasis on low-income communities and to strengthen the management of environmental sanitation.
Currently, it is operational in the GAMA and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area.
GNA