Engineers, artisans attend climate resilient, gender WASH forum in Ho
About 50 construction engineers and artisans in the Ho Municipality and Akatsi District in the Volta Region have attended a day’s ‘Climate Resilient and Gender-responsive Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) forum in Ho.
It was organised by the Women in WASH Advocacy Network-Ghana, and supported by the Cowater Ghana and the Strengthening Investments in Gender Responsive Climate Adaptation (SIGRA) project.
The objective of the forum was to strengthen the capacity of WASH practitioners, particularly engineers and artisans, in addressing climate change and gender equity issues.
The Volta Regional Minister, James Gunu, in a speech read on his behalf at the opening of the forum, said the region was already feeling the impact of climate change, with rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall patterns, coastal erosion and growing instances of flooding.
Those changes, he said, had disrupted the livelihoods of many people.
“For instance, in October 2023, unpredictable rainfalls led to the worst flooding in the region’s history, displacing 26, 000 people,” Mr Gunu said.
“As these changes intensify, the urgent need for the design and implementation of climate-resilient WASH solutions are increasingly critical,” he added.
The minister said the forum was timely and essential as it provided engineers, artisans and civil society organisations in the WASH space with an astounding potential to share their experiences, and network to drive transformative solutions that integrated gender mainstreaming and climate change adaptation in the design and implementation of inclusive and climate-resilient WASH solutions.
Changing environment
The National Coordinator of Women in WASH Advocacy Network, Nora Ollenu, pointed out that engineers and artisans were operating in a rapidly changing environment where water resources were increasingly under pressure due to climate variability, extreme weather conditions and environmental degradation.
“Women and girls, in particular, bear a disproportionate burden when systems fail, yet they remain underrepresented in decision-making and technical roles within the sector,” she said.
The forum was, therefore, essential to deepen the understanding of climate-resilient WASH infrastructure design and implementation, with a focus on adaptive planning, risk-informed engineering, and sustainable resource management.
She said it was inevitable to integrate gender responsiveness into the technical lifestyle of WASH, from design and procurement to construction, operation and maintenance to ensure accessible, inclusive and responsive services to all users.
That, she said, required fostering professional dialogue and knowledge sharing among engineers, artisans, policymakers and development actors.
The participants were taken through ‘Gender mainstreaming for resilient WASH services in Ghana,’ and the ‘Implementation of WASH resilient interventions in the context of climate change.’
