Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources has reaffirmed government\u2019s commitment to supporting prudent initiatives aimed at increasing public access to safe water and improved sanitation.<\/p>\n
The Minister was addressing a group of African Water, construction and building experts at this year\u2019s three-day Water Africa and West Africa Building and Construction Trade seminar and exhibition.<\/p>\n
The event organised by ACE event management, a UK-based organisation was on the theme: \u201cGhana\u2019s Urban and Rural Water and Sanitation Challenge in the 21st Century.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event was aimed at creating a two-way flow of information for the visitors and participants to help them analyse their sector needs and take steps for expansion and improvement.<\/p>\n
Mr Adda explained that the quest for increased access to safe water formed part of the government\u2019s vision to improve health outcomes for economic growth and development.<\/p>\n
Mr Adda said Ghana had chalked out very encouraging improvements over the years in the water sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Joint Monitoring Platform (JMP) by WHO and UNICEF stated that Ghana and the world at large has managed to reduce by half the number of people using unimproved sources of drinking water.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndeed the 2015 JMP updated report states that 89 per cent of Ghana\u2019s population has access to improved water source,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, he said, the country had suffered delays in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the area of sanitation, which was quite worrying.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhereas water sector achieved its target, basic sanitation lagged far behind with a coverage rate of 15 per cent as against an MDG target of 54 per cent (Joint Monitoring Platform Updates, 2015),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The report also indicated that there is currently a deficit of 4,000,000 toilets, which according to the Minister, is likely to increase as the country\u2019s population is growing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs at 2015, 19 per cent of Ghana\u2019s of Ghana\u2019s population still practices open defecation, as sad reality,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the USAID WASH for Health Annual Report 2015 published in 2016 puts Ghana as the 5th<\/sup> cholera-endemic country in the world.<\/p>\n He blamed these problems on the public mismanagement of solid waste and the menace of illegal mining and said the country could only achieve its water and sanitation sector target if it combated poor sanitation practices among the people and clamped down on illegal mining.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: GNA<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources has reaffirmed government\u2019s commitment to supporting prudent initiatives aimed at increasing public access to safe water and improved sanitation. The Minister was addressing a group of African Water, construction and building experts at this year\u2019s three-day Water Africa and West Africa Building and Construction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[3,391,1772],"yoast_head":"\n