The delivery of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services remains a top priority for the Ghanaian government, a senior official declared on Thursday.
Kenneth Gilbert Adjei, Minister for Water Resources, Works, and Housing, said at a day’s multistakeholder dialogue on WASH organized by World Vision Ghana and the Ministry of Local Government Chieftancy and Religious Affairs, that the government would pursue strategic pathways to ensure that WASH service delivery remains high on the national development agenda.
Adjei pledged that the government would work with all sector players to harmonise the WASH sector business processes and approaches toward achieving the common goals of delivering reliable, inclusive, and sustainable WASH services nationwide and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals on WASH.
“We believe that WASH has multiplier effects on all sectors of Ghana’s economy. So, we are looking forward to the active involvement of all stakeholders in the initiatives introduced by the government to improve access to safely managed WASH services,” the minister stated.
He added that private sector participation is crucial to the delivery of sustainable WASH services. The minister, therefore, pledged the government’s preparedness to create and deepen the enabling environment for the private sector’s participation in WASH service delivery.
The minister was confident that effective sector coordination and deeper stakeholder engagement would enable Ghana to succeed and even exceed its national and global targets.
Although institutional structures may evolve, Adjei emphasized that “our collective mandate of ensuring that every household, every school, every clinic, and every community in Ghana has access to safe water, decent sanitation, and hygiene services that are affordable, resilient, and sustainable remains unchanged.”
Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama has dissolved the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, reassigning the mandate of sanitation services to the local government, chieftaincy, and religious affairs ministry, while the mandate for safe water delivery went to the Ministry of Water Resources, Works, and Housing.
Stakeholders seek to develop strategies to minimize the risks associated with the new alignment while maximizing its benefits.
