WSA, Ivorian Government partner for 3rd High-Level Forum on Water and Sanitation

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

The government of Cote d’Ivoire is collaborating with Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA), to organise this year’s High-Level Forum on Water and Sanitation for All.

Scheduled for November 21 to November 23, 2013, the third of such forums to be held in the past three years will be on the theme: “To promote vibrant and effective South-South cooperation to accelerate access to hygiene, sanitation, and drinking water for all in Africa”.

Ghana develops emergency preparedness and response plan for water, sanitation

FROM EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE, SOGAKOPE, VOLTA REGION

Stakeholders busy at work

Disasters, both natural and man-made, are a common phenomenon the world over, some of which escalate into emergencies as a result of their magnitude.

However, despite their unpredictability sometimes, the absence of a plan to deal with incidents and natural occurrences such as floods, earthquakes, civil strife and wars as well as fire outbreaks as has been experienced in Ghana lately, always has the propensity to aggravate an already bad situation.

Ivorian gov’t owes company water bill of CFA 24 bn

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

SODECI's Djibi water treatment facility

The Ivorian government as at 2010 owed the country’s water company, SODECI (La Societe de Distribution d'eau de Cote d'Ivoire), CFA 40 billion (US$79,207,804.60) in unpaid water bills alone.

This amount comprised unpaid bills from schools, hospitals and government establishments over many years.

But although the Ivorian government has since that year began paying up the debt it owes the privately owned utility company, there still remains a huge chunk of the money to be paid.

Revealing this at a training workshop on “Water financing and preservation of the resource in West Africa” for about 30 West African journalists in Abidjan from July 1, 2013 to July 5, 2013, Mr. Seydou Dembele, Head, Government Expenses, Water Resources Department, Cote d’Ivoire, said “Government has now paid a big part of the money and it remains now CFA 24 billion [US$ 47,512,183.55].”

Abidjan hosts IUCN, GWP-WA training for West African journalists

FROM EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE, ABIDJAN, COTE D'IVOIRE

Participants in a group picture

About 30 selected journalists from 11 countries of the West Africa sub-region as well as Mauritania have gathered in the Ivorian capital, Abidjan, to receive training on water financing and its protection in the region.

Countries participating are Ghana, Togo, The Gambia, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Mauritania.

The 5-day capacity building, which commences today, Monday, July 1, 2013, is being jointly organised by the Central and West Africa programme of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN-PACO) and the Global Water Partnership for West Africa (GWP-WA), under the theme: “Water financing and protection of the resource in West Africa”.