Communities urged to generate revenue for water and sanitation management

Daniel Dotse Eklo, Nkwanta North District Environmental Prosecutor, has called on the Azua, Tinjasi and Kambonwule communities? Water and Sanitation Management Teams (WSMTs) in the Nkwanta North District to mobilise revenue from the sale of water.

He said since all projects and programmes in the communities were undertaken with the use of money, revenue mobilisation would enable their sustainability.

The Prosecutor said when revenue was mobilised, it helped maintain projects for continuous benefits and expand them as demand increases.

Mr Eklo made this call when speaking on the Roles and Responsibilities of Water and Sanitation Management Teams (WSMTs) and Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) Committees during a workshop in Kpassa in the Oti Region.

He said revenue mobilisation also paid for operation and maintenance costs such as conducting laboratory check on the water quality.

"Accredited laboratories must be engaged to undertake periodic water quality tests in line with Ghana Standards Board and Water Safety frameworks".

As part of their roles and responsibilities, Mr Eklo said WSMT/WATSAN Committees were expected to prepare and execute plans for provision of improved water supply and sanitation facilities.

He also reminded the participants about the Community Ownership and Management (COM) concept, which enjoined communities/WSMTs to take absolute responsibilities of the management and maintenance of borehole water facilities.

The Prosecutor said when communities took proper care of projects and were able to account for them, it was easy for them to replicate more of such projects.

Mr Eklo further called on WSMT/WATSAN Committees to promote sanitation and hygiene education activities in their various communities.

The participants drawn from the communities drew action plans in Water and Sanitation Management.

Mr Richard Anane Adortse, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for People for Health (P4H), encouraged the participants to continue in their voluntary work to guarantee the maintenance of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities in their communities.

He said it was time for WSMT/WATSAN Committees to mobilise enough resources to keep the boreholes functional and carried out regular maintenance and testing.

"We should no longer wait for government or a Non-Governmental Organisation to come and conduct maintenance works on water facilities they put up in your community."

The workshop was organized after a P4H survey revealed that most of the WSMTs are unaware of the roles and responsibilities. It was undertaken by SEND Ghana, a Non-Governmental Development Organisation.

Send Ghana leads a consortium of three organizations working on P4H's five-year project- Penplusbytes and the Ghana News Agency.

The project aimed at improving access to quality health service delivery in 20 districts from five regions including the Greater Accra, Eastern, Northern, Volta and the Oti.

It seeks to strengthen organizational and institutional capacities of government and other stakeholders, to attain mutual accountability in the formulation and implementation of policies in health, water, sanitation and nutrition.