1.1BN People Have No Access To Water Globally

THE UNITED NATIONS (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.1 billion people around the globe lack access to clean drinking water. As a result, 2.2 million deaths occur annually due to poor water and sanitation, while WaterAid states that Africa cannot afford to ignore the sanitation and water crisis.

This is because: 'it is holding back development and costing countries as much as 5% of GDP each year. It is also a primary cause of diarrhoea, which has resulted in annual deaths of 400,000 children in the continent in recent years', says WaterAid.

In Ghana, the organization believes that 80% of all diseases are caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation, while more than 9 million people do not have access to safe drinking water.

Also, over 9 million Ghanaians lack access to an improved water source, hence 'only about 13% of the population has access to adequate sanitation facilities.'

Currently, the situation has worsened as the Ghana Water Company now rations water in a manner that has affected all sectors of the society. The situation is such that there are areas in which residents have not seen a drop of water flow through their taps for months, even in the capital city. School children also have to bear the brunt of the situation as they have to dedicate precious time to finding water for their households before and after school hours.

To improve the situation worldwide, the UN and its allied organizations has declared 2013 as the ' International Year of Water Cooperation ' -with the view to seeking stakeholder involvement in the management and delivery of safe drinking water to all.

In commemoration of the day in Accra, on Friday, IMANI Ghana blamed Ghana's situation on the lack of commitment of successive governments to satisfactorily invest in the water and sanitation sector.

The President of IMANI Ghana, Mr. Franklin Cudjoe, lamented that from 2007 to 2012, Ghana's expenditure on water and sanitation has been less than 0.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

According to him, some members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), representing the Government of Ghana at the first High Level Meeting on water and sanitation in 2010 at Washington DC promised to allocate US$ 350 million per annum in the national budget to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

However, 'in the same year, only GH¢107.5 million was allocated and GH¢132.2 million for 2011, translating to 0.34% of GDP', he pointed out.

He stressed that Ghana has been blessed with water bodies, hence 'any shortage of safe water is a function of shortsightedness, both in financial and managerial appreciation of the value of safe drinking water to a nation.'

He said the same trend is replicated across the country, making it difficult to provide facilities such as boreholes and pipe systems that would provide safe water for communities.

In view of this, he said 'the municipal water systems have failed. Public provision is characterized by poor water quality and thus a failure to recover costs.'

As a result, 'municipal systems can barely keep up with maintenance, let alone invest in extending their networks', he noted.

He ended by saying that 'as we celebrate World Water Day, we must be mindful of the theme of cooperation and not just say it, but urge all interested parties, government, donors, NGOs, CSOs and the public to join forces in order to prevent further calamitous results from bad drinking water.'

Using the Eastern region as a case study, a Research Assistant at IMANI, Ernest Armah Ashitey said two districts in the region; Birim North and Birim North had great opportunities for accessing safe drinking water and sanitation facilities but the reality was different.

According to him, the main sources of water in Birim North include boreholes, rivers, streams and hand dug wells among others.

He said boreholes constituted the most common of their water sources of which there are over 133 boreholes, and a total 277 water facilities. However, only 238 out of this remain functional.

In terms of sanitation, he said there are 'WC – 8, VIP on line – 2, VIP line - 2, and KVIP - 26, constituting 84.62 % but only 15.38% are functioning.'

Compounding the problem is the operations of illegal small scale miners, who are making some of the water sources like streams to dry up while others have become unhygienic for use, he said.

Another unfavourable situation in the district he mentioned was insufficient technical capacity in WASH strategies, saying 'There are people there enforcing the WASH but their capacity is below satisfaction. All that is required is capacity building.'

In spite of the situation, there remain opportunities for provision of safe water because 'there are large volumes of underground water and what needs to be done is for the water resources to be properly tapped and treated, and made accessible to the people', he observed.

Concerning Kwahu North, he said their main sources of water include boreholes, and running waters such as rivers. There are two pipe systems in four area councils where there are 130 boreholes, out of which 89 are functioning, and two hand-dug wells.

However, their main challenge is lack of potable water, especially in the case of the dwarf islands, making 'the situation quite pathetic because they are surrounded by water but do not have access to quality water', he stated.

Also, most of their roads are in deplorable state, which makes it difficult for transportation of water from one community to the other.

'They have little or no drainage facilities and the people defecate in the open and indiscriminately dispose of waste because there are no proper refuse dump sites', he lamented.

Their advantage however lies in the fact that 'just like Birim North, they also have abundance of water which can be tapped and treated for consumption', he pointed out.

Additionally, he observed that there was a strong commitment by the district assembly to solve the water problems. This is because they have the needed technical support but they would still need an extra effort from outside sources.

As citizens, we urge our government to make the provision of water and sanitation a priority because the health of the nation and its citizens depend largely on these. It is said that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation, so one hopes that by the next World Water Day, Ghana's water situation would change from crisis to calm or stable.