Ministry develops policy on sanitation

Pg 54. Thurs. March 27/08

Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho

THE Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing is developing a policy to make environmental sanitation an essential social service and a major determinant for improving health and standard of living in the country.
The policy will among other objectives help resolve human and institutional capacity development issues that continue to hamper the environmental sanitation sector in order to provide a solid foundation for rapid progress.
The Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Christopher Addae, made this known at a symposium in Accra to climax this year’s World Water Day.
The day, which was celebrated on March 22, was on the theme: “Sanitation”, and also marked the celebration of International Year of Sanitation.
Mr Addae said the policy would also enhance the evidence base, knowledge, attitudes and practices of individuals, households and communities as partners in environmental sanitation to contribute to advocacy and improvement of the sector.
It will further provide actions that will lead to harmonising sanitation sector laws, promulgating appropriate and enforceable regulations as well as establishing minimum standards and guidelines.
Mr Addae called on the public to consider improved sanitation as a strategic issue, saying that the way people addressed sanitation would affect the achievement of the country’s Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) II and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
He said fortunately Ghana had set its priorities towards ensuring the provision of good drinking water and sanitation-related services for its increasing population in both the rural and urban areas.
Citing the National Water Policy which was launched in February 2008, he said the policy provided clear actions and measures that addressed water-related hygiene education and environmental sanitation issues.
The Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Mr Kobbie Kesse, in an address said the theme for the year was relevant to the country’s quest to find solutions to the problems facing it in the delivery of water both to the urban and rural population.
He said “the day falls at a time when people are experiencing water scarcity in almost all cities and towns in the country mostly because of the drying up and pollution of water sources”.
He stressed the need for people to be educated on the threat facing world water resources from pollution, over use, climate change, land use and other man-made forces.
He said the Weija lake that supplied about 50 per cent of Accra’s current water production was under serious threat from direct pollution and poor land use in its environs, adding that the pollution had resulted in high treatment costs for the company, a situation which he said was also being experienced at Owabi in the Ashanti Region, where the country had its second major treatment plant.
He stated that although the picture looked gloomy “I am optimistic that this can be arrested”.
He appealed to the consuming public to be supportive of its efforts at promoting access to safe potable water in the country, saying that as the company through its, operator Aqua Vitens Rand Limited, was actively straightening its management practices to reduce water losses at the source of production and distribution, consumers must also help by optimising water usage and reducing wastage.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Dr Joachim Saweka, who read a speech on behalf of the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-Moon, said the MDG, which envisioned halving the proportion of people living without access to basic sanitation by 2015, could not be achieved looking at the pace of development in that area across the world.
He said at the present rate, sub-Saharan Africa would not be able to reach that goal until 2076 and experts also believed that by 2015, a total of 2.1 billion people would still lack basic sanitation.
He said while there had been advances, progress was hampered by population growth, widespread poverty, insufficient investments to address the problem and lack of political will.