GHANA’S DISMAL SANITATION PICTURE

Development partners say that Ghana’s quest to become a full-fledged middle income country is doomed to fail unless government makes urgent   efforts to improve her appalling sanitation situation. Speaking at the twenty third Mole Conference held in Tamale, development partners called on the government to walk its talk.

The annual Mole Conference, organised by the coalition of NGOs in water and sanitation sector, CONIWAS, provides the platform for stakeholders in Ghana’s water, sanitation and hygiene sector to dialogue on ways to ensure that Ghanaians have access to improved water, sanitation and hygiene services. And while Ghana has already attained her MDG target for water, the same cannot be said of sanitation and hygiene.

According to Cosmas Kambozie, Programme Officer of the Environmental Hygiene and Sanitation Department of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, ‘Ghana is likely to miss her MDG target for sanitation. The latest 2010 statistics indicate that only 14% of Ghanaians have access to improved sanitation. A whopping 58% share latrines and sadly 19% still do open defecation.’

This means that every day, over five million people in Ghana ease themselves in drains, bushes and the banks of rivers.

Atta Arhin of the Global Water Initiative added that  ‘In its report on the economics of sanitation, the Water and Sanitation Programme of the World Bank, in a study conducted in 2010, revealed that the country lost 270 million dollars or approximately 1.6% of GDP in 2010 because of poor sanitation and poor hygiene practices’

This dismal picture could not pass without a comment from a co-lead of Ghana’s development partners

Marco Domaschio, who is the deputy director for Programming and Planning of the Canadian International Development Agency, said Ghana’s sanitation coverage is unacceptable. 

 ‘Ghana is on a good path with respect to water supply. However when it comes to sanitation, we all know that the situation is, if I can use the word, abysmal. Ghana has a vision in ten years to become a full-fledged middle income country. It has the resources to do so. It has the talent to do so. And it certainly can achieve this vision. But let’s also be very frank: a full-fledged middle income country needs to battle her sanitation problem.’

Government says it has fashioned out the requisite policies, strategies and plans and recently prioritised WASH issues, giving it the same attention as the education and health sectors.

But development partners continue to foot more than seventy per cent of the annual budget for water, sanitation and hygiene services in Ghana.

Deputy minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Nii Nortey Dua, who spoke  on behalf of his sector minister, stressed that government is fully committed to ensuring safe water supply  and improved sanitation to all Ghanaians, but the government’s purse  is not unlimited.