More needed for adequate water delivery - Adjei Mensah

Accra (Greater Accra), 21st May 99 ?

Mr Issac Adjei-Mensah, Minister of Works and Housing, on Thursday noted that lack of safe water and adequate sanitation facilities continue to undermine the health and nutritional security of the marginal urban and rural poor.

The minister said of the 37 major diseases in the country, 21 are water- and sanitation-related and these are being fuelled by the lack of water and sanitation facilities.

Mr Adjei-Mensah was opening a day's workshop on the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) assisted Greater Accra Regional water supply and sanitation project organised by the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) in Accra.

The workshop, attended by some 70 stakeholders in the water and sanitation industry, was used to launch the project, which was started in January this year.

The first phase is expected to cover four years and the second phase will take off from 2003 to 2006.

Under the project, 395 communities will benefit from water supply, 11,200 latrines will be provided and an estimated 60 institutions, including schools and clinics, will benefit from sanitation facilities.

Mr Adjei-Mensah said under Vision 2020, the government has no choice but to commit itself to programmes that would accelerate rural water supply and sanitation delivery throughout the country.

"If our water and sanitation problems are not tackled within the framework set in our Vision 2020, we shall face as a nation the prospects of conflict, disease and underdevelopment."

Mr Adjei-Mensah called for the active participation of communities in the provision and maintenance of facilities, stressing the need for gender mainstreaming at all levels of service delivery.

Madam Else Moller Nielsen, counsellor at the Danish Embassy, said Danish support to the water sector over the next four years would amount to 57 million dollars out of which seven million dollars is earmarked for the water and sanitation project in the Greater Accra region.

She noted that in the past, water projects had failed because women were left out of the planning and implementation process and called for a national strategy that would be gender based.

Madam Nielsen touched on the importance of cost sharing and maintenance culture in managing facilities in the sector

"The picture of abandoned and broken water pumps should be a picture of the past. We must all show commitment towards sustaining the investment."

She stressed the need for transparency and accountability for funds being provided for the various programmes, saying it would be a precondition for the continuation of DANIDA support.