Ghana will achieve SDG goal six by 2030 – Parliament

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Works and Housing says Ghana is in a position to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal Six by 2030.

The global goal six ensures availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

Just about 11 years to go, John Nana Amoako, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Upper Denkyira East, and Chairman of the Committee, said national water coverage hovered around 65 per cent, and indicators showed that the nation was on course to achieve the target.

Interacting with journalists at Nsoatre in the Sunyani West District during a visit by the committee to inspect some water projects in the area, Nana Amoako said government was determined to achieve the goal six, not only to provide potable drinking water but also fight typhoid and water-borne diseases as well.

Nine out of the 18-member committee is undertaking a three-day working visit to inspect water projects and acquaint themselves with the water situation in selected communities in the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regions.

Day one of the visit also took the committee to Jankufa and Asiri in the Jaman North District of the region where the government through the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) had put up Solar Hybrid Water Pump Systems to supply potable drinking water to the communities.

The facilities, which were about 98 per cent completed, were executed by PumpTech, an Accra-based water supply technology company, which pump groundwater and treat to supply the communities.

They use electricity and solar to pump supply water into public standpipes, and also connected to households as well.

Nana Amoako praised the contractor for the excellent work and expressed the hope that with the systems in place, rural dwellers would easily access water as a basic commodity of life.

Engineer Ahmed Ewura, the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regional Director of the CWSA, said with the new technology, the rural water coverage in the three regions would improve.

Currently, he said the rural water coverage in the regions stood at 65.25 per cent, indicating that the figure was expected to jump significantly by the close of the year.

Engineer Osman Sahanoon, the Managing Director of PumpTech, said each of the water system had the capacity to pump more than 2000 cubic meters of water per day, and advised the people to take good care of the projects. He explained that six public standpipes had been mounted in each of the two communities, saying, only households that could afford would have connections into their private homes.