INTERNATIONAL non-governmental organisation (NGO) WaterAid, said on Thursday it would spend at least £12 million over the next five years to help Ghana to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), Koku Devitor reports.
Ewurabena Yanyi-Akofur, WaterAid Country Director for Ghana, said this during the launch of the new five-year Ghana Country Programme Strategy in the capital, Accra.
‘We cannot do it alone. We are going to partner with the government and other development partners. Overall, we will raise at least £12 million to implement this strategy over the next five years,’ Yanyi-Akofur stated.
She said the project would directly benefit one million individuals and four million others indirectly through other partners.
Over the next five years, she said the UK-based NGO would pursue three main objectives to bridge the access gap to WASH in the country.
‘We aim to achieve universal sustainable and safe access to WASH, prioritise WASH across the health sector to improve public health, and strengthen the resilience of WASH to Climate Change,’ the official stated.
She indicated that WaterAid Ghana (WAG) would prioritise achieving sub-national level universal coverage of WASH and ensure that WASH is prioritised in the delivery of health services, using Bongo District in the Upper East Region as the model.
‘For WaterAid, our focus has been the marginalised, the poorest of the poor, and our emphasis here is to leave no one behind, and this has been our main driving force with our partners.’
She emphasised the need to reach the unreached, supporting the government to improve service levels.
‘Ghana’s biggest challenge is how to deliver the SDG-6. So as we speak, we have started from today, and the focus is in the Upper east and Upper west regions, backed by data and the need to reach the vulnerable people,’ she stated.
Amidu Issahaku Chinnia, the Deputy Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, who launched the strategy document, commented that access to clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene ‘is not only a basic human right but also a foundation for health, dignity, and total wellbeing.’
‘The consequences of inadequate WASH services are profound, impacting health, education, economic productivity, and human development,’ said the deputy minister.
He added, ‘It is disheartening to know that a significant portion of our population still lacks access to these necessities. This sobering reality fuels our determination to forge ahead and create a lasting change.’
He lauded WaterAid for its immense support for Ghana, its partnership with the government of Ghana over the years in creating access to these services, and for the vision in the new project document.
‘To achieve this vision, we must work together as a collective force, seeking novel approaches and technologies to optimise WASH service delivery,’ Chinnia added.
The 2021 Population and Housing Census estimated access to b safe drinking water in Ghana at 87.7 percent and access to improved household toilets at 25 percent, as 17.7 percent still practice open defecation.