Funding for sanitation heavily reliant on benevolence

As high as 92 percent of total allocation to the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources Ministry (MSWR) in the 2023 national budget is expected to be financed by developmental partners (DPs) and donors.

Government allocated GH¢1.8billion to the MSWR this year; however, it will foot just 8 percent of the stated amount with DPs and donors expected to provide the rest. This is despite an expected reduction in donor funding support for the country due to the global economic crisis

Government of Ghana’s (GoG) contribution has therefore reduced from 8.48 percent in 2022 to 8 percent in 2023. The percentage of DP support to the country’s sanitation sector has been increasing in recent years, with 70.26 percent support in 2019, 82.39 percent in 2020, 75.43 percent in 2021 and 73.12 percent in 2022.

However, should donor commitment fail to materialise there fears that the country could face a huge sanitation funding deficit; especially as plastic and other forms of waste have become a major challenge in most urban settings.

The trend of relying on donor support has therefore led stakeholders to demand that government improves its budget execution rate as a show of assurance to the WASH sector

“The allocations are made every year, but delays in the release of funds and reliance on donors have become a problem” Harriet Nuamah, Senior Programmes Officer of SEND Ghana, told the B&FT.

“Government must demonstrate its commitment to the MSWR by releasing all funds allocated to the sector to improve the budget execution rate,” she advised.

Indeed, a performance-report for the last three years, 2019 – 2021, shows that only 6.32 percent of the MSWR approved budget was released in 2019 and 18.9 percent in 2020, before increasing sharply to 86.00 percent in 2021; which according to SEND Ghana was still less than the approved budget.

To avoid serious sanitation challenges as the raining season approaches, SEND Ghana advised government to channel proceeds of the Pollution and Sanitation Levy (PSL) to finance sanitation and water resources initiatives.

The channeling of proceeds from the SPL to finance WASH infrastructure, according to stakeholders, will significantly reduce over-reliance on donors to finance WASH.

Though government projects generating some GH¢522million from PSL this year, the total anticipated GoG contribution to the sector, which is GH¢33million, constitutes just 6.4 percent of the levy.