The GAMA Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA SWP) has contructed 59,000 households toilets to improve access in the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Areas. These toilet facilities, according to Mr Gabriel Engman, Sanitary Engineer, GAMA SWP, were constructed in low-income urban communities to complement government’s efforts and thereby push the nation on achieve the Sustainable Development Goals Six (SDGs 6). The United global goals 6.1 and 6.2 enjoins countries around the world to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water as well as access adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations by 2030 respectively. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the side-lines of the 34th Mole Conference, underway at Jirapa in the Upper West Region, Mr Engman said the GAMA SWP had also provided 598 gender friendly sanitation facilities in the two Metropolitan Areas. The GAMA SWP is a World Bank funded project which started in 2015 in the Greater Accra and later expanded to the Greater Kumasi and aimed at improving sanitation, water supply and environmental sanitation services. Mr Engman said the project had further supported the Ghana Water Limited to extend and provide water supply to 15,000 households in the project implementing areas. He said the country was on course, however, doubted if the country could achieve the set target for the UN goal six, saying there was a lot of work to be done and everybody must support the government in improving the sanitation and water situation in the country. The CONIWAS, with support from its partners, is organizing the four-day conference on the theme: ‘building inclusive and resilient Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) systems to reach the unserved.’ About 170 participants, comprising policy makers, government actors, practitioners, Members of Parliament (MPs) as well as Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs). The GAMA Sanitation and Water Project and World Vision Ghana are also sponsoring some members of the Media Coalition against Open Defecation (M-CODe) to participate in the conference. Mr Engman said he was optimistic that the project would get more funding from the World Bank to be extended to other regions, so that the nation would derive the optimum benefit. Besides the physical infrastructure, he added the project had also undertaken capacity training for judicial service and assembly staff as well as trained and provided artisanal workers with manuals on the bio-digester toilets. It has also built two sewage systems, one in Ashaiman and the other at Bankumam within the Tema Metropolitan Area for proper management of liquid waste disposal.
Source: Ghana News Agency