It is estimated that 1,330 tons of faeces are deposited onto Ghana’s land surface daily through open defecation.
That quantity of faecal matter was washed into the water bodies in the country by rain which posed health implications to the people.
Professor Simon Adinkrah Mariwah, Director of the Institute of Oil and Gas Studies, Department of Geography and Regional Planning at the University of Cape Coast, said this in an address at the 34th Annual Mole Conference on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) held in Jirapa.
The Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) organised the conference to create a common platform for stakeholders in the WASH sector to review equity and inclusive approaches toward building resilient WASH services in the country.
It was on the theme: ‘Building Inclusive and Resilient Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Systems to Reach the Unserved”.
Prof, Mariwah also described the syphoning and crude-dumping of faeces without treatment as mass open defecation which was also a source of health concern.
He indicated that there were many policies of government in the WASH sector but the proper implementation of those policies was a challenge.
Prof. Mariwah observed that all stakeholders including Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and Non-governmental Orgnaisations were interested in the number of toilet facilities constructed and not the quality of the facilities.
He said, for instance, that the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) concept of the toilet facility was a laudable initiative but that the quality of the toilet facilities constructed under the project was questionable.
He said most of the toilet facilities constructed under that concept were not durable and collapsed within two to three years presenting a financial burden to the rural people in reconstructing toilets.
“Even if you can build ten toilets that will last for 10 years, that is better than building 100 toilets that will last for two years”, Prof Mariwah explained.
Ms Beata Awinpoka Akanyani, the Chairperson of CONIWAS, said the coalition, in its 20th year now, had been the long-standing body of NGO advancing WASH issues at both national and international levels.
She said access to funding for its active national and local members to implement WASH programmes had been a challenge to the coalition with the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating the challenge.
“I am using this opportunity to appeal to international NGOs and development partners to consider sustainable funding partnership with our national NGOs and CBOs (Community-based Organisations) members of CONIWAS to sustain our programmes and organisations”, Ms Akanyani said.
She explained that the various zonal leaders – Northern, Middle and Southern Zones - of the coalition were poised to collaborate with the government to accelerate Ghana’s WASH access rate.
“We are prepared for durable and effective partnership to promote innovative service delivery, address inequalities and work to strengthen systems”, she explained.
Ms Akanyani said the conference would, among other things, explore effective ways to adapt to climate change to ensure the WASH service delivery systems remained effective despite climate uncertainties.
Dr. Freda Akosua Prempeh, the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, has reiterated the need for an all-hands-on-deck approach towards fighting the menace of illegal mining to help protect water bodies from imminent destruction.
She said God had blessed Ghana with an abundance of water bodies and it behooved all Ghanaians including the traditional authorities, the religious stakeholders and opinion leaders at the community level to ensure those water bodies were preserved for future generations.
“The government is doing its part, but it means that you also have a crucial role to play in fighting galamsey so that we can protect our water bodies.
We don’t want the situation where our (future) generations will be looking for water to buy from outside this country”, she explained.
Dr. Prempeh indicated that the government, through her ministry, was working to improve the WASH sector of the country and called for the support of development partners and private sector actors towards achieving a resilient WASH sector.
She, however, commended the WASH sector actors including development partners for their continuous support to the government to improve the sector.
Mr Vincent Oppong Asamoah, a ranking Member of the Parliamentary Select Committee for Water Resources, Works and Housing, said parliament had attached importance to the MOLE Conference due to its impact on the WASH sector of the country.
He recommended that CONIWAS should engage with political parties in the country in the development of their manifestoes for the 2024 general election to ensure that issues of WASH were adequately captured in the manifestoes.
The Conference brought together private and public sector actors in WASH, development partners and WASH stakeholders to discuss systems, approaches, and models for ensuring resilient WASH service delivery in Ghana.