Government lauded for creation of security task force to fight galamsey
The Chief Executive Officer of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), Mr Worlanyo Siabi, has described as laudable the government’s decision to create a security task force to help sustain the fight against illegal mining practices and the formation of a sanitation authority.
Advertisement
According to him, the establishment of both bodies was necessary in protecting Ghana's water bodies and improving on the poor sanitary conditions in the country.
Mr Siabi also called for effective collaboration between key players in the water and sanitation sectors and the UDS in the area of policy development, hydrogeology and water safety.
He was speaking at a maiden conference on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) at Navrongo in the Upper East Region.
It was organised by the University for Development Studies (UDS) in collaboration with the CWSA and the Desert Research Institute (DRI) of the United States of America.
The three-day conference was on the theme: "WASH: The success, challenges and the way forward with the academia." It brought together participants from the academia and key players in the WASH sector to brainstorm how best to address challenges confronting the sector.
Issues discussed included financing WASH, using cost-benefit analysis, WASH challenges and the academia’s perspectives from the north.
Law enforcement
The CEO observed that "the fight against galamsey is unending because of our inability to implement our policies and enforce laws that relate to integrated water management. Regrettably, while it appears the fight is being won in the day, the illegal miners return to carry out their activities at night".
According to him, "It appears the orders of the government were effective, but the pollution levels are not decreasing as expected, otherwise our surface water bodies would have shown signs of self-cleansing."
Therefore, going forward, he noted that there was the need to sustain the fight against illegal mining to protect both natural and man-made resources including water bodies.
Sanitation
Making references to a joint monitoring programme, of the 2015 report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), Mr Siabi indicated that Ghana was ranked as the seventh dirtiest country with 15 per cent sanitation coverage.
"The lesson learnt is that in spite of the wealth of our country, we compete at the bottom with poorer countries just recovering from civil war such as South Sudan (seven per cent), Niger (11 per cent) and Sierra Leone (13 per cent)," he further intimated.
According to Mr Siabi, the absence of improved latrines and the unwillingness of house owners to own toilets led to the phenomenon of open defecation which is 79 per cent for the Upper West Region, 73 per cent for the Northern, and 82 per cent for the Upper East Region.
He said in view of the fact that a rural WASH sector intervention started by the World Bank in 2009 will be ending this year, the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources had secured a $50million (US) to continue with the intervention.
The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Rockson Bukari, reminded Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to intensify education on open defecation and also reactivate water sanitation committees in the area.
UDS collaboration
The Director of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Research and Consultancy Services (IIRaCS) of the UDS, Dr Edward Salifu Mahama, said the management of the university initiated discussions with the Nevada System of Higher Education through the Desert Research Institute to push forward the WASH agenda in Ghana.
These discussions, he said, culminated in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the UDS and the DRI leading to the establishment of a WASH centre attached to the IIRaCS.
The Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the UDS, Dr Isaac Sackey, announced plans of the university to establish a new faculty to be known as the Faculty of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene to help deliver academic programmes and research in WASH issues.