Gains made in Water & Sanitation programme threatened

Ho, Nov. 29, GNA- Gains made in more than 10-years of Community Water and Sanitation scheme in the Volta region risked being eroded. Power struggle, lack of accountability and absence of community support, slack supervision and absence of bye-laws among others threatened to erode "the culture of operation and maintenance of water facilities, hygiene and environmental sanitation behaviour change promotion in the beneficiary communities."

Mr Emmanuel F. Boateng, Volta Regional Director of the Volta Region Community Water and Sanitation Agency (VRCWSA), sounded the alarm in a speech read for him at the Water and Sanitation day celebration in Ho on Wednesday.

The celebration was under the theme, "The sustainability of water and sanitation facilities in the communities: the role of Water and Sanitation Committees (WATSAN) and Water and sanitation Development Boards".

Mr Boateng said the celebration was appropriate as it provided the platform for all stakeholders in the scheme to take stock and review their attitudes towards the success of the project.

The Water and Sanitation Committee concept came into being as part of the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA's) Volta Region Rural Water and Sanitation Agency (VRRWSA) project started in 1993. The Committees were expected to reflect community ownership and management of especially rural water schemes funded by DANIDA.

In a speech read for him, Mr Mawutor Goh, Ho Municipal Chief Executive said, to date, the project had provided 206 boreholes, 28 pipe schemes, 12 hand dug wells, 82 institutional latrines and 1,284 household latrines in the Ho municipal area.

He said the Water Boards and Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) Committees concept helped tremendously in ensuring the maintenance of such facilities.

Mr Goh observed that, "before the inception of the concept in 1993, almost all water and sanitation facilities that had broken down never got back into use and out of use after one to three years of construction".

He said the water and sanitation coverage in the Ho municipal area now stood at 51 percent for water and 21 percent for sanitation as against 13 percent and 4 percent respectively in 1993. Mr Goh said the overall growth stood at 38 percent and 17 percent respectively over the past 12 years.

He expressed concern that the donor agencies' seeming lack of interest in assisting to increase sanitation facilities in the municipal area "would at the end erode every gain achieved in the provision of adequate and safe water in the municipality and the region as a whole". Mr Goh therefore, appealed to the Programme Office and donor agencies to show more interest in the provision of sanitation facilities to the rural communities to improve on their health status.