Ahwoi Suggests Water, Sanitation Sector Merger

A PROPOSAL has been made for Ghana to consider merging the water, sanitation and hygiene sectors to be handled by a single institution.

Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi, a local governance expert who made the proposal explained that water, sanitation and environmental hygiene are closely related therefore it would be best if they were treated as a single sector.

“The common thread running through them is water. Lack of or too little water causes the sanitation and environmental hygiene problems.”

He consequently noted that it would be necessary to make the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH), the agency responsible for the three sectors.

Making the statement at this year’s Ghana Water Forum themed “Water and Sanitation Services Delivery in a Rapidly Changing Urban Environment,” he called for decentralization of water provision to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

The management development lecturer asked for the engagement of independent agencies to handle the various aspects of production, transmission and distribution of water.

“Because of the large cost and investment outlays, it is possible to have different agencies or organisations handling the different aspects of water operations,” he said.

Another option for the management of urban water, he mentioned would be to ‘regionalise’ the system where the regional water management systems could be clustered around the production locations and managed by separate bodies.

“That could be another way of breaking the monopoly of the Ghana Water Company Limited over urban water supply, one of the critical issues at the heart of the problem of urban water in Ghana.”

President Mills in a speech read on his behalf by the Minister of Water Resources Works and Housing, Alban Bagbin noted that though the Millennium Development Goals of the UN required that countries like Ghana reach a target of 76 percent for water and 53 percent for sanitation by 2015, government is aiming at 85 percent coverage.

He urged all MMCEs to implement the relevant bye-laws to ensure that all households had access to appropriate sanitation facilities to address the deplorable sanitation problem that nation faces.

Samuel Appenteng of the Association of Ghana Industries expressed the readiness of the business community to forge a stronger partnership with government in the provision of accessible water.

By Emelia Ennin Abbey