The Country Director for IRS, Mrs. Vida Duti has charged government, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), and stakeholders in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) interventions to deploy more resources to bridging the current gaps militating against the country’s efforts at attaining a 100% full WASH coverage.
She has therefore called for the establishment of a masterplan by stakeholders with a shared vision to achieve the goal of Water and Sanitation services for all by 2030 and make the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal six (SDG6) a reality.
Mrs. Duti made these known in an interview with Citi News during a 4-day Stakeholders’ forum on District Full WASH Coverage Strategic Planning Workshop held in Kenyasi and organized by IRC, Safe Water Network and its partners with support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in collaboration with the assembly.
She lamented the low statistics recorded in the country on Water and Sanitation related activities and called for more efforts to address the challenge.
“Our water coverage for example is about 68% which means there is still 32% of the population that really are not yet covered so we have to work towards reaching them. Even for the 68%, we realised that most of the existing systems were either non-functional or performing sub-optimally so we also want to see how we can work to sustain even the 68 mark. If we look at the issue of sanitation, our performance country wide is not really encouraging.
If we look at liquid waste treatment and management, we are zero. If we also look at household toilet and waste management, we still need to do more to improve on it.” she said.
She was however hopeful with the intervention of the Asutifi North district, which would be the pacesetters for the entire country, lessons about how to make progress and commended the assembly and traditional leaders for the show of commitment towards the success of the project would be learned.
The Country Director of IRC appealed to stakeholders to fashion out effective and efficient measures, strategies and partnership to avoid duplication and misapplication of resources in the development chain pledged her outfit’s willingness to collaborate with all stakeholders to bring development to the door steps of the people.
The District Chief Executive (DCE), Hon. Anthony Mensah in his welcome address, commended IRC and its partners for the initiative and pledged the assembly’s readiness and commitment to the success of the project.
He emphasized governments recognizes and appreciates the role and contributions of development partners and donor agencies to facilitate development initiatives for the benefit of the district and therefore entreated participants to contribute meaningful to the success of the project.
The Asutifi North District is the only district selected to pilot a District Based WASH Coverage Initiative and its success will be replicated in Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana.
The project seeks to leverage resources and expertise from stakeholders to support the design of a 15-year masterplan to serve as the vehicle for delivery of universal WASH services for all in the district by 2030 towards the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal Six (SDG 6).
The programme brought together traditional leaders, organized groups, market women, departmental heads and stakeholders in WASH to brainstorm and to strengthen the capacities of local CSOs to effectively contribute to sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene activities.
Earlier on, the delegation held a closed door meeting with the District Chief Executive (DCE) and management of the assembly.
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By: Mashoud Kombat/citifmonline.com/Ghana