BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE
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| Dr Afia Zakiya, CR - WaterAid Ghana |
WaterAid Ghana, an international
non-governmental organisation, has blamed Ghana’s sanitation crisis on the lack
of will and commitment on the part of the government to deal with issues in the
sector.
The special press encounter was
organised by WaterAid Ghana as part of activities lined up to commemorate World
Toilet Day which is now a United Nations designated day after its inception by
the World Toilet Organisation in 2001.
Addressing the journalists, Dr
Zakiya said; “As we speak 3.5 million people in Ghana are still without access
to safe water. In rural populations lack of access to safe water is as high as
20 per cent.”
She said the government of Ghana
continues to fail to fulfil the promises made at the Sanitation and Water for
All (SWA) High Level Meeting (HLM) in Washington in 2010 and 2012, while the
GH¢ 350 million that was promised for the sector was yet to be delivered.
“Furthermore, this failure to fulfill a promise is done in a context where the budget for sanitation
specifically has been considerably reduced (Approximately 50 per cent from the
previous year).”
Dr Afia Zakiya said this reduction
had largely accounted for the crawling national sanitation coverage which had
remained unchanged for the past few years.
Saying “Government has the
greatest responsibility in dealing with the sanitation problems of the country
and must therefore lead in the process”, she asked if the non-subsidy approach
adopted, known as community led total sanitation (CLTS) had really worked,
since some communities were so poor they could not afford their own toilet
facilities.
“It is not always that money can
solve all problems but a little will help,” she stated, adding, “We are not
saying everyone must have a flush toilet like we have in the West but we can
have facilities that would adequately take care of our waste.”
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| A section of the journalists at the media encounter |
Dr Zakiya was however optimistic
that Ghana could pick a few lessons from countries such as Ethiopia, Rwanda and
South Africa which had been able to achieve so much in sanitation coverage.
She however, asked for more
monitoring and collaboration between the sector ministries of Water Resources
Works and Housing, Local Government and Rural Development and the ministries of
Education, Health, Finance and Gender and Social Protection.
Dr Chaka Uzondu, Policy Manager,
WaterAid Ghana, said the media encounter was to raise the level of awareness on
the proper management of faeces as toilets save lives.
He said what Ghana needed was
structural transformation and that it was not enough to demand behaviour change
when “we are still building open sewers.”
“If 4,000 children under five die
every year, it can be more because there are unreported cases – what is this
about middle income status. Children are dying slowly from stunted growth.
Where is the money for the sanitation sector,” he asked.
FACTS
- To date WaterAid has reached more than 40,000 with safe water and more than 9,000 with sanitation facilities in Ghana as part of a HSBC Bank water programme.
- According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, diarrhoeal disease is the 4th biggest killer in Africa for both adullts and children.
- In total they estimate that 547,322 people in sub-Saharan Africa die every year as a result of diarrhoea.
- Access to adequate sanitation has increased in sub-Saharan Africa by 4 per cent since 1990, from 26 per cent to 30 per cent today.
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