Fumesua (Ash), Aug. 14, GNA – Mr Paul Victor Obeng, Senior Presidential Advisor has called on stakeholders in the water and sanitation sector to be bold in putting themselves in check if there has to be improvement.“Call yourselves to order, be prepared to name and shame the non-performers”, he added.
Mr Obeng was speaking on Wednesday at the opening session of the four-day Mole XXIV (24) Conference being held at Fumesua near Kumasi , dubbed ‘’Building effective partnership for scaling-up sustainable sanitation services in Ghana’’.
Mole Conference annually brings together state agencies, civil society organisations, private participators in water and sanitation to brainstorm on how to improve access to these areas.
It is being organised by the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS).
He stated that Ghana had not achieved its MDGs in reference to water and sanitation with only less than three years to 2015, the target year, thus, the theme, saying, something went wrong and there is the need to focus andevaluate on the sector’s key objectives.
They should also ask why they want to build an effective partnership and whether or not the first partnership did not work and why it did not work, who did not work, among others would help themmake amends.
He called on the stakeholders not to hesitate to point out those who failed to do their part thereby not reaching the set goals.
There is a sense of urgency as well as dynamism to recover the lostthus, set implementable and certain standards to resolve the situation.
Professor Mrs EsiAwuah, Vice Chancellor, University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyanisaid private sector participation had increasedhowever, work could not progress due to bribery and corruption of which jobs had landed in the hands of incompetent people.
She said political interference had also had a negative impact on the sector. This discourages people from being responsible and encourages nepotism, tribalism and bribery, she stated.
Countries were becoming dependent on development partners for service delivery since governments have low knowledge on quality delivery, adding that every community is the determination of the quality of mind set of its leadership.
Mr Akwasi Oppong Fosu, Minister for Local Government andRural Development tasked District Chief Executives (DCEs)to root-out indiscipline and politics and execute government policies and bye laws in the sector.
Any outbreak of disease related to sanitation and lack of safe water would have no boundaries and would not exempt anyone with a political tag, he explained.
Dr Doris Yaa Darteh, Chairperson of the Graphic Communications’ Groupsaid, waste, if unattended to, is a crisis and if nothing done it would become a disaster.
She appealed to government to deal with plastic waste by educating the public to adapt the habit of separating waste for easy recycling by those in the business.
In a speech read for him by Mrs Vida Akyea Yeboah, Assistant Coordinating Director of the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), the Ashanti Regional Minister called on parents and guardians to inculcate in their wards of school going age to practice personal hygiene.
Gifty Amoah/GNA