Dakar hosts 3rd West Africa WASH Journalists AGM

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

Participants at the Monrovia AGM in 2012

Beginning today in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, is the 3rd annual general meeting of the West Africa Water and Sanitation Journalists Network (WASH-JN).

The three-day meeting which commences today, April 8, and ends on Wednesday April 10, 2013, will involve about 28 journalists reporting on water supply and sanitation issues for radio, television, newspapers and online media in 14 West Africa Countries including Ghana.

Ghana is being represented by Edmund Smith-Asante, Deputy Coordinator for the Ghana Watsan Journalists Network (GWJN) and Emelia Ennin Abbey, also a member of the GWJN and currently the WASH-JN focal person for water and member of the regional network’s coordinating committee.

The meeting, which is being held with the support of WaterAid in West Africa (WAWA) and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), will among other things deliberate on in-country activities of institutional members of the WASH-JN (the national Water and Sanitation Media Networks), progress reports on grant projects implemented by the member countries, as well as election of new officers for the regional WASH media network.

Participating journalists will also use the opportunity to visit some slums in Senegal to have a hands-on experience and report on the state of access to water supply, sanitation services and the level of hygiene education and practice.

The first two AGMs were held in Accra, Ghana (2011) and Monrovia, Liberia (2012) respectively.

Current members of the WASH-JN are Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Niger, Benin, Togo, Guinea Bissau, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso.