Sanitation and water sector to be accorded better budgetary allocation – MP
Mr Rudolf Nsorwine Amenga-Etego, the Deputy Ranking Member for Parliamentary Committee on Works and Housing, on Friday said the committee is pushing for a good budgetary allocation to be accorded the sanitation and water sector for effective development.
He said this had become necessary especially when the new Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector needed a clear sense of focus and direction and could not be achieved when the sector was still not improved financially in terms of good budgeting as done over the years.
“But this calls for a collective effort from the various water groups and a strong partnership with the committee, for government’s policy to come to pass.
“We need to work in partnership with the legislature as it is the organisation that keeps the executive in check,” Mr Amenga-Etego stated at the closing ceremony of the 28th edition of the Mole Conference Series held in Accra.
He therefore called for a permanent partnership between the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) and the Parliamentary Committee on Works and Housing in the delivery of wide-range of WASH knowledge to the citizenry.
Mr Martain Dery, the Chairman of the Mole Conference Committee, challenged women to explore business opportunities in the water and sanitation sector to help solve the problem, whilst creating jobs.
“We believe when women are at the front, it will promote the sector in terms of equality and inclusion,” he said.
Mr David Duncan, the Chief of WASH at UNICEF, urged participants to take the discussion taken in the four days beyond the conference period towards the transformation of the sector.
“Let us take charge and ownership, and accept the responsibility as a people for fixing the problems that exist in sanitation and water, in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) goal six targets,” he advised.
The four-day event organised by CONIWAS has over the years witnessed consistent growth of interest and importance since its inception in 1989, among civil society, policy makers, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, local government, private sector and development partners.
The conference which was on the theme: “Ghana’s Lower Middle Income Status: Implications for Sustainable WASH Services Delivery”, has evolved from what was primarily an NGO forum into a multi-stakeholder platform within the WASH Sector in Ghana.
Source: GNA