WaterAid Ghana opened its Annual Review Meeting in the Upper East regional capital, Bolgatanga Monday with partners sharing experiences on their activities, successes, and challenges 2022, to chart a way forward.
Representatives of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies from the Upper East region, Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, the Upper East Coordinating Council, Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service, the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAs) with its member organizations are taking part in the three-day meeting.
In her opening remarks, Mrs. Ewurabena Yanyi-Akofur, Country Director of WAG, urged participants to focus the discussions around “those we serve, how we can serve them better, to ensure that the goals of everyone are achieved in record time.”
She said universal access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) services means working with people at the local level, because that is where people are most deprived.
“If we look at the work done over the past 40 years and investments put in, yet at the local level, people remain deprived of safe water and sanitation services, then there is the need to rethink our approach as a nation and as sector stakeholders to be able to deliver these services, leaving nobody behind,” said Mrs. Yanyi-Akofur.
She added that there was the need to strengthen systems in the sector to ensure that service was not only delivered, but they are delivered sustainably.
“From most of the reports we’ve heard from our partners today, one of the themes that keep running through them has been the need for sustainability. We need to ensure that the systems we build are sustainable and can deliver WASH services sustainably,” she stated.
Another area the WaterAid Ghana country director touched was WASH in health facilities to ensure safe and quality healthcare for patients.
“We need to take steps to ensure that health facilities in Ghana become WASH-compliant according to the World Health Organization standards.
Other institutions represented at the three-day meeting are Ghana Water Company Limited, Community Water and Sanitation Agency.
WaterAid is a global charity, working on water, sanitation and hygiene projects, especially in poor countries for more than 40 years.
