National Sanitation Authority in the offing - Minister

Government has completed a draft policy to establish a National Sanitation Authority to regulate and lead the implementation of quality sanitation services to Ghanaians, Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, has said.

He said the Authority would have a supporting Sanitation Fund that would make financial resources readily available for its activities.

He said the draft policy had made provision for the establishment of a dedicated enforcement team to be known as National Sanitation Brigade that would ensure compliance to sanitation laws and regulations.

The policy is currently before Cabinet awaiting approval.

Mr Adda made this known at the Meet-the-Press encounter in Accra, on Thursday. The Government, he said, would soon launch a total sanitation campaign strategy that would rally the entire citizens to get involved in making the country clean.

‘‘This would be spread throughout the country and penetrate the entire strata of Ghanaian society down to the lowest level and to get everyone involved in the national drive to make our nation clean,’’ he said.

The Minister noted that an assessment of the entire value chain of the sanitation sector had been done with the view to restructuring it to ensure efficient operations.

Mr Adda said upon extensive consultations with various stakeholders, the right architecture and operational modalities had been developed in order to deliver the President’s agenda of making Ghana clean and the national capital, Accra, the cleanest city in Africa.

He said waste was a resource, therefore, government was in consultation with various investors to process waste into value added by-product such as energy, compost fertilizer and recycled plastics and paper.

He said the Ministry was awaiting approval of funds to expand supply of water to rural areas in order to deliver the ‘‘water for all’’ agenda of Government.

The drilling of boreholes was ongoing and more funds had been earmarked to further expand access to water to rural communities, he said.