WaterAid Ghana begins five-year strategy 2023

To promote healthy and dignified living for all Ghanaians, a charity has created a five-year strategic initiative to achieve adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).

It prioritizes WASH services across the health sector to promote public health and climate resilience.

Scaling sustainability and strategic collaboration, the plan aims to reach five million people from 2023 to 2028 in 10 Upper West and East Region districts, with a concentration on Bongo District.

In a speech read for her by Deputy Minister Amidu Issahaku, Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah said WaterAid Country Programme Strategy (CPS) was linked with the national vision and commitments to the SDGs.

“I believe that by 2030, this strategy will deliver clean water, safe toilets, and proper hygiene to everyone in Ghana. “It’s a lofty but crucial goal,” she said.

President Akufo-Addo has led the country to upgrade home toilets from 13% in 2018 to 25%.

Madam Dapaah said the World Bank-funded Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area (GKMA) Projects have built more home toilets.

“These remarkable projects align seamlessly with the three strategic aims outlined in the WaterAid Ghana CPS,” she added. The African Development Bank financed the Greater Accra Sustainable Livelihoods Improvement Project to build home toilets.

“These aims, I believe, will focus on sustainability, scaling up our efforts and forming strategic partnerships,” the Minister said.

In an interview with Ghana News Agency, WaterAid Country Director Mrs. Ewurabena Yanyi-Akofur attributed the strategic initiative to excellent engagement, research, and partnership with stakeholders and communities.

“It also reflects our shared experiences, including our challenges, successes and lessons learnt over the past decade in Ghana, that embodied the commitments to strengthening the capacity of local authorities to expand and deliver sustainable and equitable water and sanitation services,” she said.

Mrs. Yanyi-Akofur said the Country Programme Strategy provides a roadmap for how we can work together over the next five years to provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene to all, regardless of geography, gender, or socioeconomic level.

“We are excited to continue our partnership with the Government of Ghana, civil society organizations, the private sector, and communities to realize our vision of ensuring that every Ghanaian has access to clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene,” she said.

Mr. Stephen Yakubu, Upper East Regional Minister, thanked WaterAid Ghana for focusing on Bongo District to provide sustainable, safe, inclusive, and climate-resilient WASH services.

West African nations need local institutional development, according to WaterAid West Africa Regional Director Professor Abdul-Nashiru Mohammed.

To provide sustainable WASH services to everybody, he supported the National Sanitation Authority.