The Greater Accra Metropolitan and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Assemblies (GAMA/GKMA) Sanitation Project provide 1,400 household toilets monthly in its areas of operations, specifically Accra and Kumasi.
The effort is towards the universal access to sanitation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal Six by 2030.
The Coordinator of the project, George Asiedu, said achieving the SDG Six was possible should the GAMA and GKMA Sanitation Project continue with the momentum.
He urged the government to support the project, which is under the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, to ensure that, “we quickly embark on the programme nationwide to achieve universal access to sanitation as a country.”
Mr Asiedu was speaking to the Ghanaian Times at the sidelines of a Professorial Inaugural Lecture on the topic, ‘Universal Access to Water and Sanitation Services: A myth or Realty,’ at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
According to Mr Asiedu, universal access to sanitation was possible through the Project which had over the years shown that, “it’s possible to increase access to sanitation and household toilets.”
He was of the view that with a financing support from the government over the next six years, “we would be able to do that as a country for everybody to realise that achieving SDG Six is not a myth but reality.”
Mr Asiedu also made a passionate appeal to the government to provide adequate financing to support their vision in order to increase access to sanitation and water to continue at the pace they were going.
He further mentioned the import
ant role the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and the government played to the success of the project, and urged them to continue the prioritisation of sanitation and water which he described as the centre of the growth of every nation.
“If we do not focus on sanitation and water as a country, we are not going to get anywhere which will negatively affect the economy, for a healthy nation is a healthy people, and poor sanitation and access to unwholesome water can be a setback,” he noted.
It is recalled that the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources in November 19, 2021 launched the GKMA-SWP project as part of the government’s determination to providing pragmatic measures to find a lasting solution to the water and sanitation problems in the country.
The World Bank funded project is expected to construct 30,000 household toilet facilities in the GKMA before the close of the project in December 2024, with the bio-digester toilet system being the main containment technology.
It is an extension of the Greater Accra Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA- SWP), which started from 2015.
After a successful project implementation at the end of 2020, the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, with financing and technical support from the World Bank, agreed to extend the project to Greater Kumasi until the end of 2024.
In Kumasi, the project is being implemented in eight Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies (MMAs) – Asokwa, Oforikrom, old Tafo, Suame, Kwadaso, Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly, Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) and Ejisu Municipality.
Earlier, Professor Kwabena Biritwum Nyarko of KNUST revealed research conducted showed that despite the significant improvements in water and sanitation coverage, about 1.4 million people in Ghana still relied on surface water sources such as streams, rivers, dugouts, lakes, and ponds.
He added that, the 2020 Population and Housing Census also indicated 12.5 million people in Ghana use sachet water as their primary source of drinking water, for sanitation.
And almost 8 million people in Ghana use public toilets, and 11 million people share toilets with neighbours.
BY KINGSLEY E. HOPE, KUMASI
