The Netherlands to support Ghana deal with sanitation issues
The Netherlands has given an assurance that it will provide support to Ghana in its efforts to improve sanitation in the country.
Advertisement
It said it would continue to support the government to reduce open defecation in the communities, thereby helping the country to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.
The SDG 6 mandates governments to ensure access to water and sanitation for all.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, The Netherlands Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Ron Strikker, said it was the responsibility of the government and donors to ensure that the citizenry had access to toilet facilities at their homes.
“The issue of sanitation is a matter of human rights; people who have hygienic and good sanitation facilities live longer. It is also an issue of dignity that you have access to good toilet,” he stated.
Mr Strikker, therefore, said his country had the needed instruments to facilitate and promote the establishment of toilets through the Ghana Netherlands WASH Programme (GNWP).
The programme aims to ensure that Ghanaians, especially those in the urban areas, have access to toilet facilities.
Mr Strikker said The Netherlands was collaborating with banks to give soft loans to investors and entrepreneurs to buy toilet facilities and place them at the disposal of the communities.
Government could do better
For his part, the First Secretary of Water and Climate, GNWP, Mr Fred Smiet, said the government could do better to improve upon the WASH sector.
He said financing WASH projects by various Ghanaian governments had not been the best.
“The country can do better, there are many challenges with respect to sanitation in Ghana and the statistics of Ghana compared to other countries in Africa is at the bottom. So Ghana can do more in terms of toilet, particularly for the poor part of the population.”
He, therefore, called on the government and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to pay more attention to toilet and sanitation issues in the country, especially in urban areas.
“For example, poor sanitation affects the health condition of communities, the health conditions of people and it is something that needs all our attention.”
GNWP
The GNWP focuses on integrated urban water and sanitation and has an indicative budget of € 200 million, including contributions from The Netherlands, the Ghana government and the private sector.
The GNWP implementation started in 2014 and it is expected that water, sanitation and hygiene delivery would have seen marked improvements at the end of the project in 2020 through the provision of infrastructure, behavioural change and capacity building.
He further urged the authorities to make judicious use of the waste in the system through recycling, which he said could be used to generate electricity, biogas and fertilisers.
In a related development, The Netherlands Embassy in Accra joined the world last Saturday to celebrate this year’s World Toilet Day.
Mr Ron Strikker called on the government to make toilet facilities accessible to the citizenry.
This year’s celebration was on the theme: “Toilets and jobs.”
The theme focused on how sanitation, or the lack of it, could impact on livelihoods.