Private sector engagement key to overcoming sanitation challenges
Key stakeholders in the sanitation and waste management sector of the country on Wednesday met with the government and the country’s development partners (DPs) at the first in a series of dialogues aimed at bringing the three together in a long-lasting partnership.
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The dialogue series seek to offer a platform for the three partners to discuss the challenges affecting the sanitation sector and come up with possible solutions to them.
Sanitation coverage in the country has been abysmally low for decades, with Ghana only managing an eight per cent increase in coverage access from 1990 to 2015, during the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) period.
While the successor to the MDGs, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), provide an even greater challenge to Ghana because it will require the country to attain a 100 per cent sanitation coverage at the end of 15 years (2015–2030), it is our belief that the dialogues on sanitation that have been initiated by the Environmental Services Providers Association (ESPA), Zoomlion, the Graphic Communications Group Ltd (GCGL), the Fidelity Bank and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) have a great role to play in ensuring increased sanitation coverage.
Attaining a 100 per cent sanitation coverage in the country looks like an impossible hurdle to climb, especially because the country has completely gone off track in its MDG target of 54 per cent.
The Daily Graphic, nonetheless, holds the view that as was established at the maiden Diplomatic Dialogue Series, a three-pronged partnership among the government, the private sector and the DPs cannot fail to achieve the desired results.
Key among the factors that were listed as contributing to the failing of Ghana’s sanitation sector are the sidelining of the private sector in decision-making and the lack of capacity (financial and technical) to deal with issues, which we believe are surmountable.
We also believe that if the government focuses more on behavioural change by dedicating funds to field and environmental health officers and also insists on the enforcement of bye-laws and sanitation policies, the battle on sanitation will be won.
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It has been touted time without number that the private sector is the engine of growth. If that assertion is true, it only stands to reason that private waste management companies must be assisted and allowed to lead the process in ensuring that Ghana improves its unenviable sanitation record.
If the country must meet the SDG 6 of “ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” by 2030, it would require that no stone is left unturned to improve sanitation, starting from now.
We urge the government to do its part by not only involving the private sector on key sanitation decisions but also removing duties on sanitation equipment imported into the country and partnering private companies to undertake major sanitation projects that will rid the country of waste and make our environment more habitable.
Indeed, we are aware that the government has already embarked on some very laudable public/private partnerships (PPPs), such as the Accra Compost and Recycle Plant, the National Waste Bin Distribution Programme (NaWaBin), the Urban Sanitation Module, among other initiatives, and only ask for more to be done in that direction and for sanitation to be prioritised for a truly clean Ghana.