Gov’t urged to give priority to water and sanitation issues

A group of journalists have appealed to the government to give attention to water and sanitation issues and provide the people with access to good drinking water and to tackle sanitation problems of the country.

The Ghana Watsan Journalists Network (GWJN), a group of journalists, who have elected to report on water and sanitation matter, made the appeal at a press conference in Kumasi addressed by Mr Ibrahim Abukari, its Ashanti Regional Coordinator.

He said about 70 per cent of out-patient attendance in Ghana, according to the Ministry of Health’s 2009 Report, is due to poor sanitation.

The Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) of the World Bank estimates that nation is losing about US$240 million annually, in terms of health lost in labour and productivity caused by the lack of or inadequate sanitation.

Ghana is therefore off-track regarding the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on sanitation.

Mr Abukari also made reference to another disturbing statistics that show that 2,000 children die every day worldwide from diseases caused by dirty water and poor sanitation and said these provide the justification to put premium on water and sanitation.