The workshop brought together representatives from government agencies, NGOs, and community groups to share insights, discuss challenges, and coordinate relief efforts. Notable participants included UNICEF, the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR), the Volta Regional Coordinating Council, CONIWAS, and other relief organizations.

Esi Boni-Morkla of the MSWR presented on the spillage’s background, explaining how high water levels in the dams prompted controlled releases that, despite early warnings from the Volta River Authority, severely impacted communities. Immediate relief efforts involved daily food supplies, mobile sanitation facilities, and rapid water system restoration. Yet, the crisis underscored the need for robust planning and improved early warning systems.

A second presentation from the Volta Regional Environmental Health Officer outlined post-spillage interventions led by UNICEF and local health authorities. In collaboration with the Regional Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee on Sanitation, efforts included distribution of hygiene kits, establishment of mobile clinics, and public health education. Despite these efforts, overcrowded shelters, inadequate sanitation, and health risks remain pressing issues.

Panel Discussion and Recommendations:

Panelists from various organizations discussed critical lessons, including the importance of early communication, safe haven identification, and enhanced data sharing. They underscored the need for improved interagency coordination and highlighted innovative engineering solutions to prevent future floods. The session concluded with calls for more resources dedicated to emergency preparedness and climate adaptation measures to protect at-risk communities.

Conclusion:

The workshop reinforced the need for collaborative action and forward-thinking policies to strengthen resilience against similar future disasters. Stakeholders committed to leveraging the insights gained to refine emergency frameworks, with a shared goal of safeguarding vulnerable populations in Ghana’s flood-prone areas. This workshop highlights the importance of community engagement, collaboration among government and non-government organizations, and strategic planning in disaster management. As Ghana faces increasing climate-related challenges, workshops like this are essential in developing robust, community-focused solutions to safeguard lives and livelihoods

Recognizing the deep-rooted connection between WASH and NTDs, IRC, in collaboration with local authorities, developed a comprehensive District WASH and NTDs masterplan. Launched in March 2023, this initiative aims to tackle the dual challenges of poor WASH infrastructure and the prevalence of NTDs.

Experts emphasized the critical role of WASH in preventing and managing NTDs. Dr. Benedict Kwaw from the NTD secretariat highlighted that inadequate WASH services create breeding grounds for disease-carrying vectors, exacerbating the NTD problem.

A panel discussion brought together key stakeholders to share insights and challenges. Dr. Daniel Acorlor underscored the complex interplay between poverty, overcrowding, and illegal mining in worsening the NTD situation in Upper Denkyira East. He stressed the importance of sustained efforts to prevent a resurgence of NTDs, as these diseases perpetuate a cycle of poverty.

The need for dedicated funding for NTDs emerged as a critical issue. Panelists emphasized the disparity in funding between NTDs and other health programs, calling for increased investment to effectively combat these diseases.

To maximize the impact of WASH interventions, stakeholders agreed on the importance of incorporating NTD indicators and key performance indicators (KPIs) into project planning and monitoring. Innovative financing mechanisms were also identified as essential to attract greater investment in NTD control.

As the dialogue concluded, it became clear that a comprehensive approach, combining improved WASH infrastructure, health education, and sustained funding, is vital to break the cycle of poverty and disease perpetuated by NTDs.

Key takeaways from the dialogue:

• WASH is a critical component of NTD prevention and control.
• Addressing NTDs requires a multi-sectoral approach involving government, NGOs, and communities.
• Increased investment in NTD programs is essential to achieve a significant impact.
• Sustained efforts and innovative financing are key to breaking the cycle of poverty and disease.

Year 2010 is the tenth year since world leaders, gathering under the banner of the United Nations, adopted the millennium declarations at the turn of the century. The declarations were hinged on eight major commitments tagged as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were to serve as the fulcrum for development interventions that would lift the world’s poorest out of their misery.

The MDGs touch on various aspects of human development; from human rights to corruption to climate change. With five more years to the 2015 deadline, the power brokers of the world are assessing progress towards the attainment of the goals, focusing particularly on actions, policies and strategies to support those developing countries that are lagging most behind and those goals that are most off track, thus improving the lives of the poorest people.

MDG Target 7c calls on countries to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation and sets the proportion of people in 1990 without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation as the baseline to be halved by 2015.

The 2010 WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report on sanitation and drinking water says the global community is seriously off-track on sanitation and if current rates continue, the goal will be met 30 years too late – that’s a billion people too late. Presently, 2.6 billion people are still without access to a safe place to go to the toilet.

Ghana is one of the developing countries that are lagging behind. And, of course, the water and sanitation (Watsan) sector is about the most off track goal area. Indeed, progress towards the sanitation MDG leaves much to be desired.

In response, a new global partnership for working together to achieve universal access to sanitation and water has emerged. It is referred to as Sanitation and Water for All (SWA). What the new framework does is to place more emphasis on sanitation by switching the positions of the key words in the popular sector terminology “water and sanitation” to “sanitation and water”. The partnership is made up of developing countries, donors, multi-lateral agencies, civil society and other development partners.

SWA was at the centre of discussions at the first ever high level meeting on water and sanitation which was hosted by UNICEF last April in Washington DC. Ghana was in attendance with a strong delegation led by the ministers of Finance, Local Government and Rural Development, and Water Resources, Works and Housing. 

The situation today

A look at current trends will enable one to better understand the importance of the SWA compact. The 2010 JMP report, which was launched in March, provides detailed estimates of progress towards the MDG and breaks down figures for access to sanitation and water by country, region and rural/urban.

Presently, 82% of the Ghanaian population has access to improved drinking water supply, meaning that Ghana is on-track to achieve the MDG drinking water target. However, Ghana is said to be seriously off-track on sanitation and will miss the MDG on sanitation by more than 200 years while the whole of sub-Saharan Africa will miss the target by an average 198 years if current trend of progress continues.

The report estimates that only 13 out of every 100 Ghanaians (13%) have access to improved sanitation; while on average, 31 out of every hundred people in sub-Saharan Africa have access to improved sanitation.

For Ghana, the JMP reports that coverage has improved from 7% in 1990 when the population was approximately 15 million to 13% in 2008 when the population was about 23 million. Urban access to improved sanitation has risen from 11-18% while rural access to improved sanitation went up from 4-7% over the same period.

The global objective is to secure access to improved sanitation (defined as decent household toilets) for 64 out of every hundred people (64%) by 2015. Coverage in sub-Saharan Africa is currently 31%, representing a three percent improvement over 1990 levels of 28%. The majority of the regions people – 567 million – still do not have access to improved sanitation.

The increase, according to analysts, represents an annual average improvement of 0.17% since 1990. Granted that the trend continues, the earliest time the sub-Saharan African region will reach the MDG target will be the year 2206.

Solutions SWA offers

The SWA framework is informed by the estimation that if universal coverage for sanitation and drinking water is achieved, the economic benefits would rise to $171 billion yearly. Following from the global SWA framework, Ghana has developed its own SWA compact. Highlights of this compact were presented at Mole XXI in July by Naa Demedeme, Director, Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate (EHSD) of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD).

In the simplest language, Naa Demedeme explains that the SWA Compact is addressing basic sanitation needs. That is, how to safely dispose human waste. 

The compact assesses that the following key gaps in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector are hindering progress: low political prioritization, leading to insufficient resource allocation; lack of cohesive national planning frameworks for addressing sanitation and drinking water; and poor targeting and unpredictability of financing, resulting in resources failing to reach those most in need. The other hindrances are lack of evidence, data and analysis to inform decision-makers, and lack of mutual accountability and sector-specific monitoring mechanisms.

According to Naa Demedeme, “meeting the MDG targets with just four years to go is impossible but we know that we can make some progress.”  Therefore, the SWA framework aims, among other things, to “Increase political prioritisation for sanitation and water through high level discussion and public focus” as well as “generate advocacy for strong international, regional and national commitments to sanitation and water goals.”

Another aim of SWA is to provide technical support and capacity building for developing countries to create strong national sanitation and water planning frameworks including detailed planning, budgeting, and monitoring procedures.

Furthermore, SWA aims at the mobilisation of resources and prioritisation of support for sanitation and water by linking existing aid mechanisms to national sanitation and water plans; channelling funding to where it is most needed, and monitoring results.

Against this backdrop, the themes for the Ghana SWA Compact are Enhancing Political Prioritization and Commitment; linking policies to plans, programmes and projects; improving investments to meet priority challenges; strengthening ownership and leadership and achieving gGood governance and accountability.

New financial commitments

Government estimates that investments required for meeting the MDGs on sanitation and water are between US$ 200 and 300 million annually. “Based on initial calculations, GoG [Government of Ghana] commits to increase allocations in budget statements for sanitation and water, and work with Development Partners and the private sector to ensure that allocations reach US$200m annually towards sanitation and water improvements to meet MDG targets and sustain improvements” beyond the MDG period.

Also, the Ghana Compact reveals that the GoG commits to “make additional allocations of US$150m annually towards hygienic treatment and disposal of septage and faecal sludge as well as sullage and storm-water management.” This particular commitment is aimed at addressing the ‘crisis’ situation of indiscriminate discharging of sullage, septage and faecal sludge that mostly affects residents of poor neighbourhoods, and water courses, rivers and beaches. It is also meant for the mainstreaming of environmental sanitation measures.

Philip Amanor of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency is of the view that some policies pursued over the years have been inconsistent with actions and have been inimical to progress. For instance, pan latrines are still in use because these were encouraged over the years. Today, there are efforts at banning the use of pan latrines when the number of pan latrines in use in Accra alone, according to him, is estimated at 5,000.

In a communiqué adopted at the end of Mole XXI, participants said Government should engage in consultation and encourage active participation of stakeholders at all levels in the WASH sector on the SWA Compact to get the maximum benefits and impacts and also ensure that commitments reflected in it include efforts at minimizing the negative impacts of climate change.

Mr. Minta Aboagye, the Director of Water at the Ministry of Water Resources Works and Housing (MWRWH) officially launched the 1.97m Euro African Water Facility pilot initiative for Ashaiman, Huni Valley, and Mankessim at the WASH House in Dzorwulu, Accra on February 23, 2010. This was under the theme, Improved Sanitation and Water supply to the urban poor in Ghana through Tripartite Partnerships. In a keynote address read on his behalf by Mr. Attah Arhin of the MWRWH, Mr. Minta observed that the TPP project is steadily growing from strength to strength since its inception. He commended the initiative and commitment of the Team leader and the project team. “I am confident that the project will continue to design many more of such appropriate initiatives which will result in lasting improvements in the performance of the sector towards the achievement of national and MDG targets” he added. Mr. Minta also paid tribute to the African Development Bank (ADB) and the Africa Water Facility (AWF) for their continued support to the Water and Sanitation sector in Ghana.

He extended his appreciation to all development partners and civil society organisations who continue to support the sector, urging them to do even more. Mr. Minta congratulated the beneficiary communities and reminded them that their selection imposes a unique responsibility on them since opportunity for replication in other MMDAs will largely depend on the level of success they achieve under the pilot scheme. Eugene Larbi, the team leader for the TPP project gave an overview of the project touching on the project components, project risks, implementation arrangements and the tentative system specifications. He recounted that the TPP project has been actively running since 2008 with a grant funding provided by the Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) which comprises of ICCO, A4A and SIMAVI; TREND and now AfDB/AWF.

According to him the 1.97million Euro funding from the AfDB/AWF brings the total project budget to 3.1million Euro and extends the project lifespan from 3 to 4 years. Mr. Larbi named the project main partners as the Sector Ministries including the MWRWH and the Ministry of Local Government Rural Development (MLGRD); Sector Networks comprising PRUSPA and CONIWAS; Agencies like the PURC, CWSA and GWCL/AVRL; and others like NWP, IRC and Safi Sana Ghana. Mr. Larbi assured that even though the bulk of AWF support will go to infrastructure development, the project team will continue to channel more effort towards the learning, material development and pro-poor advocacy issues. He announced that learning structures like the Local Level Learning Alliance Platforms (LLLAP) and Steering Committees will soon be established in the pilot communities. He contended that this will involve beneficiary communities in decision making and project management processes throughout project implementation and beyond. The representatives of the beneficiary communities individually thanked the Donors for the support and TREND for choosing their respective communities. They collectively pledged their support and commitment to the pilot projects.

Mr Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, General Manager, Communications at Aqua Vitens Rand Limited, Operators of Ghana Water Company Limited, suggested that the tax should not only be on bottled water but also on sachet water since the latter was produced more and caused more environmental problems.

Stakeholders in the Water and Sanitation sectors on Friday expressed support for the proposed 20 percent tax on packaged water
At a workshop to discuss government’s budgetary allocation for the sector, participants agreed that there was the need for more funding in the sector to enable them provide efficient water and sanitation services to all people.

Mr Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, General Manager, Communications at Aqua Vitens Rand Limited, Operators of Ghana Water Company Limited, suggested that the tax should not only be on bottled water but also on sachet water since the latter was produced more and caused more environmental problems.
He said some percentage of the tax should be used for development in the water and sanitation sectors to ensure better provision of services.

Mr Sakyi-Addo pointed out that the water sector especially needed more investment in terms of infrastructure and equipment, and stressed that there was the need for increased funding in the sector.
Other participants at the workshop agreed that the tax should be implemented and some even suggested that a greater chunk of monies accrued from such taxes should be used mainly for development in the water sector.

The workshop was organized by GrassRoots Africa, a non governmental organization that advocates for improved water and sanitation services especially in rural areas to discuss possible funding options for development in the sector.

Mr Rudolf Amego-Etego, Executive Director of GrassRoots Africa said the lack of money in the sector was the biggest obstacle that hindered the implementation of policies that could help Ghana achieved improved services in the water and sanitation sectors.
The Water and Sanitation sector is the pivot of development, he added.

The Resource Centre Network (RCN) is an institutional partnership that seeks to promote Knowledge Management (KM) services within the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector in Ghana.

The process of establishing RCN originally started back in October, 2002 with series of investigative studies which informed decisions on priority activities. The Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) in association with TREND Group, WaterAid (Ghana), the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre organized an Advocacy workshop on May 12/13, 2004 in Accra on knowledge management. Subsequently, four key sector organizations namely, Water Aid Ghana; Water Research Institute; KNUST- Department of Civil Engineering and TREND Group joined hands to form the nucleus of the Resource Centre Network (RCN) to spearhead knowledge management in the water and sanitation sector in Ghana. The outcome of the Knowledge Management Advocacy Workshop was the establishment of a Task Force which brings together about a dozen key organisations in May 2004. The activities of the Task Force were led by the CWSA and the Group met regularly until December 2006. Overall the Task force made positive gains in terms of advocacy aimed at raising awareness of knowledge management (KM). Key outputs of the group also included a Concept Paper for development of KM in the Sector.

However, the activities of the Task Force slowed down considerably in 2006 due to lack of funding. In 2008, the inception of new projects in the sector with a focus on knowledge generation and dissemination (UNICEF/WHO Water and Sanitation Monitoring Programme (WSMP), the Tripartite Partnership Project (TPP) led by TREND, the WASHCost and SWITCH Projects which are led by KNUST, and the West Africa Regional Programme of IRC, which supports RCN, etc.) provided a new impetus for the revival of the RCN. A Secretariat was set up  and a new National  knowledge management Coordinator, appointed since June 2008 to over see the activities of the Network  and Secretariat.A core group of knowledge focused organizations  was formed and have already  revived  and  is intensifying knowledge management activities in the sector. The current Phase of the RCN is governed by a steering committee and is anchored in the Water Directorate of the Ministry of Water Resources Works and Housing.

The RCN secretariat  provides the following products and services:

Learning platforms :The RCN organizes the monthly National Level Learning Alliance Platform (NLLAP) and periodically Regional Level Learning Alliance platforms (RLLAPs) where ride range of stakeholders in the WASH sector meet to discuss topical issues in the sector for purposes of learning and policy influence.

Sector Newsletter : The RCN  coordinates the production and editing of a national sector newsletter,WASHNEWS

Sector Website (www.washghana.net): The RCN coordinates the update of the WASHGhana website. We also offer free publishing (on the website) of sector articles, reports and information on upcoming and/or past events and activities. The website, established and hosted by IRC International is regularly updated by the secretariat. The site has information on RCN and partners, sector calendar, upcoming and past events; news and themes on community, rural and urban wash; etc. There are also links to several other resource centre websites from across the globe. For publishing on the site please send your articles, reports and information to rcn@washghana.org

Brochure, Fact Sheets, and Thematic Papers: RCN offers information materials like the The WASH Reflections,(a two pager report on the monthly NLLAPs) Brochures, Ghana Fact Sheets, etc. These  short briefing notes in response to frequently asked questions provides information to key themes with reference to local situation. These papers are made available both in hard  as well as soft copy format, accessible on the sector website.

Training and Capacity building: The RCN encourages the building of a minimum capacity for knowledge management like, information storage and usage within each sector organization at the national, regional and district levels.

Establishment of Media Platform –‘WASH Agenda’ : RCN works closely with the (GWJN) to establish an interactive programme on WASH issues. This platform will bring key sector actors involved with WASH governance to interact, share with sector and non-sector audience.

Questions and Answer Service: The RCN offers enquiry services. the secretariat directly provides answers in response to specific problems and queries.

Sector Walk-in Library: The RCN has developed a Resource Centre (library). Key sector publications are available to sector stakeholders, institutions and agencies. All  publications are also made available for downloading from the website, (www.washghana.org).

 Organization of Sector Learning Platforms: The RCN work closely with sector Ministries and agencies and umbrella groups like CONIWAS to  organize  annual sector leaning and sharing events like The Ghana Water Forum, NESCON, MOLE Conference series among others.

Documentation of Case Studies: The RCN work closely with sector agencies and projects to document, analyze and draw out the lessons from programmes and provide recommendations on the minimum conditions of success, helping to direct funding towards the most effective interventions.