$409m Needed To Achieve MDG In Water
The Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) says it will need 409.06 million dollars to be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goal target of 76 per cent rural water coverage.
Presently, rural water supply in the country is 57 per cent.
According to the agency, 175.00 million dollars of the required funds have already been provided by the country’s donor partners but it would need the additional amount of 234.06 million dollars to meet the year 2015 target.
Benedict Kubabom, Director of Planning and Investments of the CWSA, disclosed this when the Parliamentary Select Committee on Water Resources, Works and Housing paid a working visit to the Agency in Accra.
The visit by the committee, chaired by Samuel Jonfia, Member of Parliament for Ahanta West, was to enable it to learn at first hand, the programmes and activities of the CWSA for the past year and the challenges it is facing.
Mr. Kubabom stated that in line with the financial requirements, the Agency has submitted a memorandum on a Strategic Investment Plan from the year 2008 to 2015 to cabinet for approval, after which it would host a donor’s conference for development partners to, among other things, indicate the regions they intend to support.
Touching on potable water coverage at the end of 2007, he said out of a national population of 15,079,765, a total of 8,273,310 representing 54.86 per cent were served. The coverage involved 20,248 boreholes, 4,405 hand dug wells and 294 pipe system.
He said the Upper West region received the highest coverage of 78.24 per cent. Its population by then was 586,621 out of which 458,944 were served. The coverage involved 1,657 boreholes, 161 hand dug wells and 12 pipe system.
The Western Region received the lowest coverage of 40.93 per cent. Out of a population of 1,486466, a total of 608, 433 population were served. Coverage involved 1,040 boreholes, 418 hand dug wells and 26 pipe system.
Mr. Kubabom said the Agency’s anticipated projects next year include the Northern Regional Small Towns and Sanitation Project for 20 towns, which is to be funded by the Canadian International Development Agency at a cost of 30 million Canadian dollars.
Mr. Kubabom mentioned inadequate administrative budget, district level implementation bottlenecks, difficulty in raising community contributions to capital cost of facilities and non-compliance of non-governmental organisations to national strategy, as some of the challenges facing the Agency.
He said after 14 years of operations, the CWSA had made impressive strides on the development landscape and called for increased lobbying by Parliamentarians for government budget support and increased collaboration and coordination with the district assemblies.