BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE
CONIWAS
says it has chosen ''Building Effective Partnership for Scaling-Up Sustainable Sanitation
Services in Ghana" as the theme for this year’s conference because it
deems it as more appropriate in the context of Ghana in view of the
serious sanitation challenges currently facing the country.
Dignitaries at the opening of last year's conference in Tamale |
The
Coalition of Non-Governmental Organisations in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS),
has stressed that while Ghana’s sanitation problem is huge, it can only be
tackled with close collaboration among all national stakeholders.
In
a statement released this week to announce Mole XXIV, this year’s edition of
annual conferences held on water, sanitation and hygiene since 1989, the Coalition
stated: “Clearly, the problem of sanitation is huge, and can only be tackled
head-on with close collaboration and effective partnership backed by
effective resource deployment by community members, traditional authority,
local government authority, national government, private sector and development
partners.”
These,
it lists as poor individual and community attitude, poor and inadequate
facilities, socio-cultural issues, weak institutional support mechanisms, weak
enforcement of bye-laws and poor sanitation financing.
Quoting
from the 2013 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS, 2013) report which estimates
Ghana’s improved sanitation (safe toilet) access rate at 15% as at 2012,
against the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of 54%, the Coalition
laments that at the same time the open defecation rate of the country is currently
23%, having increased from 19%.
According
to CONIWAS, “Whereas the improved sanitation coverage for urban Ghana is 21%,
rural Ghana is 9%. In terms of regional distribution for open defecation,
the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions score 9% and 10% respectively while the
Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions have open defecation rates of 89%,
72% and 71% respectively.”
The
Coalition hopes therefore, that the outcomes of the Mole XXIV Conference and its activities in general, will be
important in highlighting these critical issues at the district and community
levels, and support communities to implement simple and sustainable measures to
raise funds.
So from Tuesday, August 13 to Friday, August 16, 2013, Ghana’s
NGOs in water and sanitation, governmental agencies, individuals and
development partners will be dialoguing on issues meant to stabilise the
country’s very shaky sanitation status.
Key
issues to be examined will include “Public- Private Partnership for Scaling-Up
Sustainable Sanitation Delivery”, “The Role of MMDAs in Sanitation Service
Delivery”, “Community's Perspective in solving Sanitation Challenges:
opportunities and realities” and “Sanitation and health linkages: A way out of
Ghana’s Sanitation Challenges?”
According to the organisers, the key
objectives for Mole XXIV are to: Explore options and opportunities for
sustainable sanitation delivery in Ghana, Examine public-private
partnership models for accelerated sanitation delivery, Ascertain
relevance of operation, maintenance, and user fees as
financing options for improved sanitation delivery, Share knowledge and
expertise on sanitation delivery and provide recommendations for
policy advocacy and influencing.
They
hope to use knowledge sharing sessions, structured and expert panel
discussions, exhibitions, structured media events, conference communiqué and
report to arrive at the goals set out for the conference.
Mole Conference is one of the biggest
Multi-Stakeholder annual platforms in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
sector in Ghana and is named after the venue of the maiden edition, Mole in the
Northern Region of Ghana.
It brings together sector practitioners from
NGOs, Government, Private Operators, Networks, CBOs, CSOs, etc. to dialogue,
learn and share knowledge/ information on specific themes that affect the
sector.
The Mole Conference Series, which has
witnessed consistent growth of interest and importance since its inception in
1989 among civil society, policy makers, local government and development
partners alike, has evolved from what was primarily an NGO forum into perhaps
the most important multi-stakeholder platform within the WASH Sector in Ghana.
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