More than 47,000 to gain access to improved water

Kumasi, March 28, GNA - About 47,507 people in selected rural and the peri-urban communities in three countries - Ghana, Burkina Faso and Niger, under the USAID West Africa-Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WA-WASH) Programme have gained access to improved drinking water.

This involved the provision of small-town water systems and boreholes.

The five-year programme, being implemented at a cost of US$20 million to increase sustainable access to safe water, has also delivered sanitation facilities to an additional 18,566 people.

Mrs. Elizabeth Wanjiru Muriithi, the Monitoring and Evaluation Assistant, announced these at the opening of a four-day training workshop on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Governance in Kumasi.

It brought together members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Water Resources, Works and Housing, Ghana Watsan Journalists Network (GWJN), NGOs, and other stakeholders.

USAID, Global H2O for Sustainability and Florida International University (FIU) are the sponsors.

Mrs. Muriithi said apart from the supply of potable water and improved sanitation, the programme had also trained 5,215 decision and policy makers, planners, local NGOs and community leaders on Climate Change Adaptation.

She said, additionally, 1,950 people had been assisted to build their capacity to adapt to the effects of climate change, with 5,509 others having received short-term agricultural sector productivity and food security training.

Mr. Charles Nachinab, Country Policy Manager for Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA), said the goal of the workshop was to accelerate regional access to quality water supply and sanitation services.

It was meant to reinforce the capacity of national and regional institutions and to create an enabling environment for the development of water and sanitation service delivery to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

GNA