Ghana’s rank as 7th dirtiest country - What to do?

Two years ago, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released a report in which Ghana was ranked as the seventh dirtiest country in the world.

Titled Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2015 Update and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Assessment, the joint-monitoring report released in July 2015, noted that Ghana’s challenge to improved sanitation had become starker with the country dropping “even further amongst the worst performing countries”.Per the report, 7,500 children died annually in Ghana from diarrhoea that is linked to unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation.

Being the last of its kind on assessment of the MDGs which ended in 2015, the report indicated that the MDGs on sanitation was, among others, directed at improved access to household toilet facilities.

Ghana’s MDGs assessment scored for sanitation was 15 per cent in 2015. The country had set a 54 per cent target by the end of 2015.

On access to household toilets, Ghana was far behind Egypt that scored 90 per cent; Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and Mauritania scored between 22 per cent and 52 per cent.

Trailing Ghana were: Sierra Leone, 13 per cent; Chad, Madagascar and Togo, 12 per cent each; Niger, 11 per cent and South Sudan, 7 per cent.

The report indicated that only 95 countries in the world met the sanitation MDGs target. Some 700 million persons in the world did not benefit from improved access to good sanitation.

Mr David Duncan, Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme of UNICEF, made the following observation on Ghana’s poor rank on sanitation: “Now, there is a broad sanitation model and strategy which definitely is rolling out and that will help dramatically but we need more investment in sanitation and the challenge is that we really need that commitment.”

A statement that accompanied the WHO/UNICEF report noted: “Indicators for sanitation target (for Ghana) closely mimic that of the global numbers – every fifth Ghanaian or five million people defeacate in the open.”

On access to good drinking water, Ghana met the MDGs target well ahead on schedule.

It has been two years since the WHO/UNICEF progress report on sanitation and drinking water assessment was released.

Indications presently are that the sanitation situation in Ghana has not improved. In 2014, Ghana reportedly occupied the 10th dirtiest country position in the world. The rank went down to seventh in 2015.

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What can be done about the intractable problems of sanitation in Ghana – open defeacation and filth that has engulfed the country over the years?

The situation was different before the December 31, 1981 military takeover that toppled the civilian administration of President Hilla Limann.

Use of paid conservancy/sanitation workers was suspended during the rule of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and the voluntary vigilante system was introduced.

Cleaning gutters and clearing of roadsides and parks were done on voluntary basis.

Time has proved that suspension of paid conservancy/sanitation workmen and women engaged by the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembles (MMDAs) has been the root cause of Ghana’s massive sanitation problems of today.

Is the best solution not reverting to the good old method of engaging paid labour, instead of forced or slave labour, to keep the country clean?

Parliament recently approved a $48.85 million loan agreement between the Ghana Government and the African Development Bank (AFDB) for the Greater Accra Sustainable Sanitation and Livelihood Improvement Project (GASSLIP).

The project is directed at supporting efforts of the government to increase access to adequate, safe and affordable water, improved sanitation and hygiene education.

Per a report indicating the parliamentary committee’s approval of the loan, the project was aimed at improving sanitation targets in the country from 15 per cent in rural areas and 20 per cent in urban areas -- to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target of 40 per cent.

The purpose, the report stated, was to lift Ghana out of its current position as one of the lowest sanitation covered countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

It is hoped that part of the fund will be used to employ, train and equip conservancy/sanitation workmen and women to keep the MMDAs clean on daily basis – as it was done in the past.

(therson.cofie@yahoo.com)