WAG Global Strategic Plan

                                             WASH STRATEGIC PLAN

 Water Aid Ghana has designed a five-year Global Strategic Plan spanning 2015 to 2020. The Plan is to help reduce the inequalities in the WASH sector and improve hygiene. Explaining the plan to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health in Accra, the Country Director of Water Aid Ghana, Dr. Afia Zakiya, said the Strategy will promote positive hygiene behaviours and attitudes towards WASH. Water Aid Ghana, an International Non-Governmental Organization for the past years has been collaborating with stakeholders and other civic society organizations in Ghana to transform lives by improving access to potable water, hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities. Dr. Zakiya said the five year strategic plan will strengthen and support the capability of governments and other service providers to deliver sustainable WASH services. She explained that bridging the inequality gap, the strategy will enable the poorest and most marginalized people to realize their rights to water, sanitation and hygiene. She noted that it is important to promote the integration of water, sanitation and hygiene into other areas of human development critical for poverty eradication and sustainable development. She said the lack of potable water and proper sanitation practices have a serious implication on a nation’s development, adding that about 19-thousands Ghanaians including five thousand one hundred children under age five die annually from diarrhoea. Dr. Zakiya said from April 2013 to April 2014 Water Aid Ghana has exceeded its service delivery target in the water and sanitation sector in some the urban and rural areas. She said the target set during the periods under review for water in the urban area was 32-thousand-586 and the rural areas was 40-thousand-566 with the target plan at 51-thousand but it exceeded its target to 73-thousand-152. She added that the target set for sanitation in the urban areas was seven-thousand-384 and the rural areas was 19-thousand-762 and the planned target was 44-thousand-200 and exceeded its planned target to 27-thousand-146. Dr. Zakiya said Water Aid Ghana will support governments and service providers to develop their capacity to deliver safe water, improved hygiene and sanitation by the end of this year. 

WAG HEALTY START CAMPAIGN

                                                                   

Water Aid Ghana has launched its Healthy Start Advocacy Campaign. The four–year advocacy campaign seek to mobilize action to end child deaths, create concern about the health of the nation and find solutions to the problem. Explaining the campaign to the media, the Country Director at Water Aid Ghana, Dr. Afia Zakiya  said  the advocacy will focus on improving the health and nutrition of newborns and children under age five.

Water Aid Ghana is an International Non-Governmental Organization for the past years have been collaborating with other civic society organizations in Ghana and stakeholders to transforms lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities. The Country Director of Water Aid Ghana, Dr. Afia Zakiya said its main aim under the healthy start advocacy campaign is to contribute to the reduction of the newborn and child morbidity in Ghana.  She noted that access to clean water and safe sanitation are the basic right of every citizen, adding that  when these right are combined with good hygiene practices they constitute the essential building blocks for good health. Dr. Zakiya point out that poor hygiene practices, poor sanitation and unclean water have a negative impact on the health of individual particularly newborn and children. She started that according to  the Committing on Child  Survival Progress Report for 2014, globally five hundred thousand children under age five  die from diarrhea every year. She said fifty percent of these deaths are caused by infections related to poor environmental conditions. She said  these deaths can be reduce drastically if much attention is given  to the public health system.   Dr. Zakiya noted that in order to achieve this,

there is the need to give all children a health start by working with commitment and dedication for the transformation of the public health system.  The Head of Policy and Partnership at Water Aid Ghana, Musa Ibrahim noted that the time has come for Ghana to promote the global action plan for pneumonia and diarrhea as well as scaling up the nutrition plan. He said the Country needs to focus more on newborn health to urgently increase the newborn survival. The WASH and Health Focal Lead at the Water Aid Ghana Dr. Chaka Uzondu said that diarrhea is the third biggest killer of children under age five, and such there is the need to intensify the promotion on hygiene in the Country.  yvonnenyaku@wateraid.org

HEALTH

                                                                                                         

  The Tema Metropolitan Environmental Health Department is poised to intensify health inspection in the Tema region. It is also gearing up to increase awareness on sanitation practices to forestall the outbreak of communicable diseases. Apart from these, the Department is also focusing on the registration and screening of food vendors, whiles advocating for the supply of noise measuring instruments. The Head of the Tema Metropolitan Environmental Health Department, Edward Shardey, said this in an interview with Obonu News in Tema. Hagar Sey has the rest of the story.  

                                                   

The Department, over the years has been collaborating with private sector service providers, government agencies and the security services, to ensure sanity in the Metropolis. Mr. Shardey noted that for the Metropolis to achieve the needed environmental standard there is the need to intensify monitoring and supervision. He said the Assembly will enforce the District Assembly bye-laws as well as intensify investigations and conflict management. According to him, the Metropolis recorded 965 cholera cases last year; saying out of the number, 561 were males, which is the highest ever recorded in the metropolis. He added that the Department embarked on several awareness programmes last year, to educate residents on cholera prevention and hygiene. He mentioned inadequate offices, lack of vehicle for special duties, arrest of stray animals, open defecation and lack of equipment to measure noise pollution among others as major challenge limiting the work of the Department. Mr. Shardy added that cholera outbreak; high infected organs of animal in meat inspection and refuse accumulation in the markets were also a challenge for the Department. He charged the Assembly to put in place measures to address the challenges confronting the Depart

MOLE 25

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Julius Debrah  has challenge stakeholders in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, WASH, to use the conference to formulate  concrete  implementable  strategies to address the gap between water and sanitation target in the MDG by 2015. According to him the conference will be an indicator to assess the success of the sector. Mr. Debrah said this at the 25th Mole Conference of the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation in Accra. Under the theme: mole conference series at 25: reflection to define the future. The conference attracted stakeholders in the WASH sector to come together to deliberate on strategic plan and implementation that will help improve the Water Sanitation and Hygiene  in the country. The conference also create a platform to discuss  challenges confronting the sector since mole one. 25 years of the establishment of mole in Ghana, the WASH sector have seen a tremendously growth in the country, which according to the joint monitoring fund report, Ghana has achieved it water target in the MDGs. Mr. Debrah noted that Ghana cannot achieve its target in the Millennium Development Goals in sanitation by 2015, adding that the currently, Ghana  has achieved 13 percent out of the 54 percent in sanitation. He said with the issue of water, Ghana has already achieved it target in the Millennium Development Goals  even though there are some erratic nature of services in the water delivery. Touching on the current cholera case Mr. Debrah said at as January 1st up to date the country has recorded over 16 thousand cases with a cases fatality rate of zero point eight percent. He attributed these to lack of proper hygiene. He pledge government support to provide the needed resource to personnel to enable them fright the disease. The Team Leader for the Innovation Service Limited, Stanley Walters Attafi has called for the assessment of Civil Society Organizations and the private sector to serve as database for the sector information for monitoring, evaluation and also provide input into the preparation of the Sanitation Water for All , SWA for the SSDP. According to him will help monitor progress in the Civil Society Organizations. He stressed on the need for comprehensive assessment to fully understand the positions these actors that is the big or small to have equal space to participate in all sector programs.  Touching on the Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project, SRWSP, he said a sub-component of the Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project will help support the establishment of a robust Sector Information System, SIS to facilitate information sharing, coordination, and to enhance Monitoring and Evaluation roles among WASH actors. A Consultant also a former director of water at the Ministry of Water Resource Works and Housing, Minta Aboagye said a new development Goals and Targets are being formulated for the WASH sector by the UN-Water and its collaborating agencies to replace the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs to Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs for the next 15 years beginning 2016 to 2030. The new development goals will target hundred percent in the WASH sector. He said for the new development agenda emphasizes on Sustainability, in service delivery, adding that Water will have its own target but will not be decoupled from the broad goal for the environment.  He said critical examination of progress at its annual Conferences, raising the necessary flags to alert government should there be slippages on the way, and to provide workable suggestions towards achieving the targets. He said the United Nationals noted serious limitations in the formulation of the MDG target for water and sanitation, which is: “halving the population without access to potable water and sanitation facilities by 2015.  The conference was organized by CONIWAS and Sponsored by Water Aid Ghana.