Ghana spends more on water in urban sub-sector

The country spends more on water in the urban sub-sector than she does in the rural sub-sector.

According TrackFin, an initiative that tracks financial expenditure on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), 78 per cent of WASH expenditure was invested in the urban sub-sector while only 22 per cent was expended in the rural sub-sector.

The Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Dr Kweku Agyemang-Mensah, made this known at the launch of the second phase of the TrackFin at a workshop in Accra.

He said 60 per cent of WASH expenditure also went into the provision of potable water, while 40 per cent went into the sanitation and water sectors.

The workshop brought together representatives from Burkina Faso, Mali, Madagascar, Benin, Tanzania and Morocco who discussed the outcome of the first phase of the initiative.

It was also to monitor WASH in the Sustainable Development Goals agenda by the United Nations.

TrackFin

The TrackFin, led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is an initiative under the UN Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking Water (GLAAS).

It seeks to estimate total expenditure in the WASH sector. The first phase, which was launched in 2012, was piloted in Ghana, Morocco and Brazil.

Besides, the TrackFin aims at defining and testing a globally accepted methodology to track financing of WASH at the national level, in order to strengthen national systems for the collection and analysis of financial information for policy-making and programming.

The second phase would also institutionalise the outcome of the first phase and develop a global coordination platform for the tracking of finances in the WASH sector.

Countries taking part in the second phase include Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali and Madagascar.

Financing  

The minister indicated that Ghana had gained valuablle experience in its participation which he indicated would impact positively on policy decisions in resource allocation.

For his part, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Alhaji Collins Dauda, said Ghana’s efforts at improving accessibility to water as targeted in the Millennium Development Goals had been achieved. He however expressed concern over the sanitation situation in the country whch he noted was not encouraging. Available data at the Ministry of Local Government indicate  that access to improved sanitation was 15 per cent as compared to over 76 per cent achievement for water.

WHO

In a speech read on his behalf, the WHO Country Representative, Dr Owen Laws Kanawa ,said improvement in water and sanitation helped to reduce health cost for individuals, and ensured greater productivity in the workplace. He said, it would also help to prevent an estimated 842,000 deaths from diarrhoea diseases each year, while basic hygienic practices could also reduce the risk of infections.