$1m project to address water challenges in Upper East launched

$1-million project aimed at enhancing the capacity of communities to effectively manage water resource challenges exacerbated by climate change, has been launched in the Upper East Region.

The three-year project, known as  “Securing Water Access Project (SWAP)” with funding from AB InBev Foundation in the United Kingdom (UK), is expected to benefit 500,000 people in five districts in the region, namely Bawku West, Nabdam, Bongo, Kassena Nankana West and Kassena Nankana Municipality.

In the Upper East Region, where the effects of climate change critically impact basic water and sanitation services, the SWAP emerges as a transformative initiative aimed at addressing these pressing water challenges for the benefit of the people.

WASH

Being implemented by WaterAid Ghana, a global Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) focused on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) with support from other organisations, it is envisaged that the project would ensure resilient and continuous access to safe drinking water through community ownership and innovative water security approaches.

Fortunately, the project aligns with WaterAid Ghana’s aim three programme outcomes in its new country strategy by enhancing the institutional capacity of local governments to deliver inclusive and climate resilient WASH services.

Speaking at the launch, a Senior Programme Manager, WaterAid UK, Gift Luwe, said the project was an intervention designed with stakeholders that would adequately respond to the WASH climate challenge faced by communities in the beneficiary districts.

He said it was about working with communities to build their capacities and create the needed innovations that would enable them to have sustained water resources in their communities irrespective of the threat of climate change.

“As an organisation, we want to see more involvement of the government, not only support to communities and their water management committees but ride on WaterAid Ghana’s community vulnerability assessment of some of the findings in district adaptation plans,” Mr Luwe stated.

While urging the community members to own the project and ensure its effective and efficient implementation, WaterAid UK  Programmes Manager stated that it was the organisation’s ambition that if well-implemented SWAP would be a model to be replicated in other regions for the benefit of local communities.

Collective effort

The Upper East Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, in a speech read on his behalf, said the launch marked a significant milestone in their collective efforts towards ensuring sustainable access to safe and clean water for the people, particularly in the rural and underserved communities.

He stated that issues of WASH remained critical to the region’s developmental agenda as safe water was critical to the health, dignity and livelihoods of the people, saying “some communities still face daily challenges in accessing clean and safe water”.

This situation undermines not only our health and well-being but also our economic potential as a people”, he said, and therefore indicated that the project had come at a critical time when the need for comprehensive solutions to water challenges had never been greater.

He admitted that addressing issues of water and sanitation required collaboration among key stakeholders, hence the need for stronger partnerships among public and private sector agencies as well as communities.

Dr Salih stressed that the project sought to enhance education, healthcare and economic opportunities as well as contribute significantly to the region’s achievements of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly goal six.     

Writer’s email;gilbert.agbey@graphic.com.gh.