30th Mole confab to strengthen civil society’s role in WASH – CONIWAS

The Vice-Chairman of the Coalition of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS), Yaw Atta Arhin, has hinted that the 30^th edition of the Mole Conference series schedule for Ho in the Volta Region will give sector players an edge to strengthen civil society’s role in stimulating development and implement actionable policies, plans and programmes for improved access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

He said the 2019 Mole confab will again afford participants the opportunity to work actively in partnership with the Government of Ghana, development partners and the private sector.

Arhin gave the hint when he addressed the media in Accra on this year’s conference themed “Thirty Years of Multi Stakeholder Dialogue on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene; Reflections and Prospects.”

According to him stakeholders will do a reflection on the progress of work in terms of sector advocacy, highlight on cutting edge solutions including leveraging on public-private partnerships to deliver cost effective, affordable and inclusive WASH services for scaling up.

“Again, the conference would review ongoing and proposed sector policy reforms and the extent to which these are consistent with the Government’s overall vision for the WASH sector and the SDGs; and develop actionable recommendations for implementation and reporting back to stakeholders,” he added.

CONIWAS is therefore calling for the redoubling of efforts to achieve the water and sanitation targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

It explained that the adoption of the SDG (6) raises the bar for the WASH sector, requiring approaches that could provide safe, sustainable, affordable WASH services at scale.

However, the Vice-Chairman of the Coalition could not hide his disappointment when he revealed that for the three years into the implementation of the SDGs, Ghana’s national policies on water and environmental sanitation are yet to be sufficiently aliened to the SDGs and to address the emerging sector issues and challenges.

He noted that although the SDGs require increased investment in WASH infrastructure beyond that of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) levels, funding for WASH services under the SDGs have remained between 0.1 and 0.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product from 2017 to 2019 respectively.

“The Coalition is of the view that the anticipated reduction in grant funding following Ghana’s attainment of a Lower Middle Income status coupled with low budgetary allocation to the WASH sector meant that the SDG targets were likely to be missed”. Mr Arhin lamented.

The Vice-Chairman of the Coalition further explained that this years’ event which marks the 30th edition of the Mole Conference series, would be held from November 4, to November 8, 2019, in Ho the regional capital of Volta Region, will highlight on key activities such as paper presentation, plenary and expert discussions respectively, poster presentations as well as a the grand debate which is on the topic: “The Ministry of Sanitation and Hygiene is Meaningless without a National Sanitation Authority”.

He further stated that the Conference is considered as a ‘game changer’ in the WASH sector, because the outcomes of the conferences had helped to the establishment of some key institutions, policy reforms and implementations by the government.

“Although a lot of things had been done in the past to improved WASH sector services, “there is the need to change the way we do things,” in order to achieve the expected quality outcome.

Simply providing just a WASH facility is no longer sufficient- it needs to be reliably, high quality and convenient service at affordable rates and in pursuing the drive for delivering sustainable services, efforts should be made to ensure equitable access across gender, location and socio-economic status, he said.

This, he said, would ensure that everyone everywhere in Ghana had access to WASH by the 2030 SDG timeline, or earlier in 2025 as contained in the Government of Ghana timeline in the Water Sector Strategic Development Plan (WSSDP: 2012-2025).

Mr Arhin noted that currently, beside the challenges of weak policy and funding, majority of Ghanaians lacked access to safely managed WASH sector services, with only 21 per cent of the population having access to basic sanitation services, while 22 per cent still defecated openly.

Presently, only 27 per cent of the population have safely managed water access to their premises, and between 70 to 80 per cent of household and communal solid waste were collected; 58 per cent of schools lack water supply; 36 per cent of schools lack toilets, and 54 per cent of the population did not have access to basic handwashing facilities. He stated.

“There is also marked inequalities across rural and urban areas, and across gender, adding that a large percentage of health facilities across the country especially in the rural communities do not have access to basic WASH services in the premises which impact negatively on Maternal and Child Health services,” The Vice-Chairman of the Coalition disclosed.

He gave highlights of some effects of poor WASH services, key among them being the persistent ill-health and death particularly among children and infants.

Source: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH

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