According to him, the role assigned to President Nana Akufo-Addo as co-chair of the SDGs, puts the country in a peculiar situation to demonstrate leadership, commitment and support for projects and interventions towards achievement of the SDGs.

Speaking at the launch of the “Asutifi North District Ahonodie Mpontuo” WASH Initiative (ANAM WASH Initiative), the Regional Minister said the Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation is mandated to ensure coherence in policy formulation and coordination among stakeholders in Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH) interventions, to consolidate all existing national policies on sanitation.

He therefore entreated the assembly and institutions to take leadership in identifying innovative ways of funding their development.

The “Asutifi North District Ahonodie Mpontuo”, is an initiative formulated in line with SDG 6 which seeks to galvanize support, resources and expertise of strategic partners to ensure inhabitants of the district have access to safe and reliable water, and sanitation services by the year 2030 and beyond.

He lamented the Joint Monitoring Programme of the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), reveals an estimated 159 million people still collect drinking water directly from unsafe sources, while 892 million still defecate in the open.

“UNICEF-Ghana has reported that about 4,000 Ghanaian children die each year from diarrhea, and about 26% of Ghanaian children suffer from stunting. While hand-washing can reduce diarrhea and pneumonia by up to 50%, less than 15% of Ghanaian households have hand-washing facilities. While improved sanitation can reduce diarrhea rates by 36%, only 15% of Ghanaians have access to improved sanitation,” he lamented.

Asomah-Cheremeh therefore commended the Asutifi North District Assembly for demonstrating collective resolve to tackle the areas developmental challenges. He urged residents and stakeholders to change their attitude towards WASH and support the initiative.

The Country Director of IRC-Ghana, Vida Duti, in an address said the development of ANAM WASH Initiative is to accelerate the rate of progress and demonstrate how to attain full WASH coverage in a district, considering the slow progress made with the implementation of the Ghana Water Sector Strategic Development Plan (2014), according to the Joint Monitoring Programme 2017 report.

She said the Asutifi North District was selected through rigorous and diligent process, and therefore appealed to stakeholders to support the initiative aimed at improving access to basic water services by 2030.

The Initiative is funded by Conrad N.Hilton Foundation (CNHF) Grantees, and implemented by IRC-Ghana in collaboration with the Asutifi North District Assembly, and with support from CNHF partners: Safe Water Network (SWN), World Vision International, Netcentric Campaigns, Aquaya Institute and National foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation (NADeF), Water.org Inc and GIZ.

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By: Mashoud Kombat/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The alliance commended the government for the recently launched national sanitation campaign, and efforts that seek to address sanitation and hygiene issues in Ghana.

Speaking to citifmonline.com, Abdul- Nashiru Mohammed, the Country Director of Water Aid, a non-governmental organisation, said open defecation was a serious menace that needs all the attention it can get.

He said there was the need for property owners to be compelled to provide toilet facilities.

“Households have a role to play, household needs to contribute to the development of their own household toilet, you cannot leave that to government, if you are able build a house you should be able to put in a toilet” he said.

Nashiru Mohammed also noted that, there have been suggestions on the need to have a national sanitation fund, to help the country effectively end open defecation.

He suggested that money for the fund can come from extractive sectors like gold and oil and gas, which gives Ghana about four hundred million dollars or more annually.

Nashiru Mohammed said the Ministry is excited that the Alliance bought the memorandum to their doorstep, and has promised to collaborate with them and other civic society organisations in the fight to improve sanitation in the country.

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By: Farida Yusif/Citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to the International Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), the clarion call comes at a time when many schools have no regular access to water, basic private toilets and facilities for washing hands with soap.

The Communications and Campaign Officer of WaterAid Ghana, Ms Yvonne Kafui Nyaku, who made the call when she addressed a durbar to commemorate this year’s Global Hand Washing Day in the Aberingabisi community in the Bongo District, said the problems in schools without decent toilet facilities are that, girls are likely to miss lessons or drop out of school once they start menstruating due to the unavailability of decent places for them to change.

“They don’t have that privacy to change their sanitary towels and pads so they stay away from school. Children also miss lessons because they have to cut lessons to go and do their own thing in the bush,” she indicated.

She called for prioritization of water, sanitation and hygiene in schools, health centres and other public institutions.

“Health care givers are exposed to all sort of diseases, they risk their lives because they don’t have access to water to wash their hands well, especially after handling patients,” she added.

The Global Hand washing Day is a global advocacy day dedicated to increasing awareness and understanding the importance of hand washing with soap.

This year’s celebration was on the theme: “Our hands, our future”.

The Upper East Regional Minister, Rockson Ayine Bukari, urged parents and teachers to instill the attitude of hand washing with soap in children, especially while they are young.

He said an award scheme will be instituted to acknowledge communities that perform credibly in ending open defecation in the region.

The Bongo District Chief Executive, Peter Ayinbisa in a speech read on his behalf, announced the assembly’s intention to build 14 boreholes by close of the year 2017, and 20 others in 2018, to augment the provision of potable drinking water in the district.

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Source: GNA

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The percentage of stunting in the region is 36%, which is far above the national average of 22%.

This was revealed at a media workshop in the Upper West Regional capital Wa, by SNV, a Netherlands Development Organization working to promote social change through a partnership with the media.

Stunting is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation.

Despite the Region’s status as the food basket of the country, producing enough food for domestic consumption and sale, several children under age five suffer from malnutrition.

Zakaria Abdul Jail, the adviser on nutrition for the SNV’s programme dubbed, “Voice4Change Partnership” explained that the implications of stunting on the health and economy of the country is severe, hence serious attention must be given to it.

“The implications are that if children are stunted, their cognitive abilities are affected, their brains turn not to develop well and this has impact on enrollment in schools. It has impact on the person’s physical development in the future. Reducing stunting alone for Ghana or underweight in general has enormous benefits for Ghana in the sense that we would be reducing public investment in these areas. For instance, there is a report that suggests that the cost of hunger that is malnutrition indicators in Ghana is about 5% of our Gross Domestic Products (GDP). So you can imagine what this amount of our GDP can do to other sectors,” he noted.

The Voice for Change Partnership (V4C), is an evidence-based advocacy programme being implemented by SNV Netherlands Development Organization in partnership with the International Food and Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The programme will run from 2016 to 2020 in some selected countries including Ghana.

In Ghana, the programme is focusing on 3 main intervention areas; Food and Nutrition security, Renewal Energy and Water and Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH).

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Mohammed Aminu M. Alabira citifmonline.com

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The gesture is part of a project being implemented under the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA-SWP) to increase access to improved water supply and sanitation.

Funded by the World Bank, it is aimed at strengthening environmental sanitation management in the selected communities.

Prospective customers in the LIUCs would pay only GHc200 instead of GHc1,500 to enable them to get connected to GWCL pipelines to have access to potable water.

The GWCL had also commenced a rapid customer consultation process known as the “Town Hall Meetings,” to enhance communication between the company and the people in the identified communities.

Mrs Faustina Boachie, the LIUCs Manager, who made this known to the Ghana News Agency at Adjei Kojo near Tema, said the project would continue till the end of 2020.

She said: “All forms of constraints that hindered the provision of water services in those communities have been removed.”

Mrs Boachie said the GWCL had committed to providing equitable, affordable and safer water services to the low income communities.

“Residents in these areas are, therefore, advised to get their own household connections at an affordable rate now to enhance good sanitation,” she said.

Mrs Boachie said GWCL would also provide technical support to the 11 selected metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies in the Greater Accra Region under the GAMA project to supply water to the areas.

She said the project was targeted to benefit 250,000 people in the LIUCs.

Mr Felix Mensah Nii Anang-La, the Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, gave the assurance that the Assembly would ensure efficient solid waste collection in its catchment areas.

He said the Assembly was also engaging with investors in the waste management sector to recycle and generate power through technologies that would use liquid waste in a soon to be constructed central storage facility.

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Source: GNA

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According to David Duncan, the Chief of WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) at the UNICEF office in Ghana, most people in the three regions of the North do not see a toilet as a necessity because open defecation has been the practice for generations.

“For many people in Ghana, this is just normal, particularly in the north of the country where about three in every four households actually have to go into the bush for toilet. For them it’s normal, it’s been the way of life for generations. So there is a real complete change which is required for people to move from some of the things they consider as normal, an everyday living to  changing that to actually building a toilet and using a toilet.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”daglrn6H7bSgT3RvounE8IeB8cJR2GxQ”]Mr. Duncan made the revelation on the Citi Breakfast Show on the backdrop of reports that the World Bank is “unhappy that many Ghanaians still lacked access to basic sanitary facilities, particularly household toilets.”

Ghana was in 2015 ranked second by WASH after Sudan in Africa for open defecation, with 19 percent of its population resorting to that kind of sanitation practice.

Within the same year, the World Health Organization also ranked Ghana as 7^th dirtiest country in the world.

Cause(s) of poor sanitation performance

According to Mr. Duncan, the issue of poor sanitation in Ghana is due to lack of priority on the part of the country.

“We just don’t see sanitation as important as how the country is doing,” he added.

The WASH Chief also said the only way open defecation could be stopped is for every household to have its own toilet.

“It really comes down to commitment by government and the people to change things. The only countries that are doing well from Africa are those who are really struggling in many cases, just like the country. If you look at Senegal as compared to Ghana, more than every two households have their own toilets but in Ghana it is one in seven,” he noted.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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According to the Coordinating Secretary of GNUPS, Kwame Amponsah Manu, the decision to pull out of the demonstration was taken because the concerns raised by the NUGS were being tackled by government.

NUGS  had earlier given notice of the planned demonstration with the participation of GNUPS in protest of the government’s management of the country’s educational sector.

However, speaking to Citi News, Kwame Amponsah Manu stated that as the government had taken steps to address their concerns, they had taken a decision to suspend their involvement in the planned demonstration .

He said that the government had “officially come out with a changed stance that they are going to pay the book and research allowance and processes have begun.”

According to him, some students who were owed their allowances had also been paid and that efforts were being made to address the problem of  subsidies to senior high schools.

Mr. Manu added that NUGS’ planned demo had lost the backing of its backers  as “there is division on their front with majority of their blocs not supporting the demonstration.”

He said that NUGS believes that the government had to be “given ample time to get all the issues resolved.”

By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The postponement is as a result of a restraining order obtained by the police from an Accra Circuit Court.

The Police Service cited security implications and inadequate personnel as reasons in order to obtain the order from that court.

The two student unions joined forces to protest against, what they call “unfortunate happenings” in the country’s educational system.

Some of the issues which provoked the planned protest by GNUPS and NUGS include the indefinite strike by polytechnic teachers, closure of polytechnics and non-payment of nurses and midwives trainees’ allowance.

In an interview with Citi News, the secretary of GNUPS, Kwame Amponsah, indicated that the unions do not intend to violate the court order, hence the rescheduling.

He added that the on the advice of the police, who had informed them that they would be unable to provide enough personnel to ensure the security of the protesters, the Unions decided to postpone their protest.

Meanwhile, the Greater Accra Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of  Police (DCOP) Tetteh Yohunu, told Citi News that his outfit had been in touch with the unions and would be prepared to provide personnel to monitor the protest on the rescheduled date.

By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Speaking to Citi News, the National President of NUGS, Samuel Darkwa Bimfo said “it is a welcoming development that the government, through the Ministry of Education has come out to say that they are going to take care of all the utility bills ….we are grateful and we are happy about it.”

Government earlier directed public tertiary instutions and state agencies to pay the full cost of their utility bills.

The decision was however opposed by the tertiary institutions.

The students’ union  threatened to stage a demonstration if government refuses to rescind its decision.

According to Mr. Bimfo, in spite of this development, there were other issues which had been discussed and that he expected these issues to be addressed as well

By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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