Water and sanitation monitoring platform inaugurated

The Minister of State at the Ministry of Water Resources, works and housing, Cecilia Abena Dapaah has said that water and sanitation are critical basic necessities for the survival and well-being of human-being.

The Minister made this pronouncement at the inauguration of water and sanitation monitoring platform in Accra. According to her, improved water and sanitation services to the people of Ghana are central to achieving improved living standards and a tonic for propelling human towards economic sustainability.

Cecilia Abena Dapaah said the programme is also taking place concurrently in Nigeria and Mozambique and aims at assisting government to adequately track progress towards achieving the targets of the Millennium Development goals in water and sanitation.

She added that it is an important initiative which when carefully executed will inform government and indeed the international community on our efforts at achieving the goals.

"Though it is acknowledged that Ghana is not doing badly in its effort to achieve the target for Water which is calculated to be 76% coverage by 2015, she cannot say the same for sanitation", she declared.

She added that MWRWH has identified monitoring as a key function that needs to be professionally carried out.

The Minister said the project has come as a support to an ongoing programme which has come to help provide a better understanding to the process of information gathering, analysis and eventual dissemination to the public on water and sanitation issues.

Naa Lenason Demedeme Director EHSD, MLGRDE said it is obvious form all indications that our cities and towns are being engulfed with filth with most drains turned into receptacles for a garbage and excreta.

She added that low income residents in the cities and rural communities completely lack basic facilities for a silage and excreta disposal and apart from the public health implication of this situation as most of our diseases are sanitation related.

Lack of political will to enforce sanitary regulations and byelaws, lack of credible data to facilitate effective planning, the general negative and perception about sanitation by the citizenry are some of the challenges which militate against progress with increased access to basic sanitation, she noted.

According to him the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment with the mandate for sanitation will not relent in giving her support to the secretariat.

She also assured MWRWH of her total commitment in terms of human, logistical and where possible financial support towards the achievement of the goals and objectives of the Water and Sanitation Sector Monitoring Platform in Ghana.

By slarge