Many African countries are NOT going to meet the MDGs on water and sanitation. Too often, the water supply systems break down and do not get repaired, as the technologies used are not sound for the local context, too expensive to repair or spare parts are unavailable. How were these technologies come in the first place?
Vodafone Ghana today launched its Community Water Initiative in observance of World Water Day, celebrated annually on March 22nd. The telecommunications giant alleviated the plight of 12 water–deprived communities and institutions by constructing 20 hand pump boreholes for use by its inhabitants free of charge.
The originator of the popular internationally accepted sanitation strategy, Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), has declared that Ghana could achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in Sanitation and become an open defecation free (ODF) country if the current blockages are removed.
Three new mapping tools are now available for monitoring water and sanitation projects: Water Point Mapper, h2.0 Monitoring Service to Inform and Empower Initiative and FLOW, Field Level Operations Watch,
Uptake of new WASH technologies by policy makers, planners and the private sector is often weak. For example, no new technology for point water systems has been taken to scale since the handpumps that were tested and widely introduced in the early 1980s.
The second CONIWAS learning event, dubbed, ‘Afram Skuul of Innovations’ took place in WA, Upper West Region of Ghana from 9th-12th March, 2011. Pronet North, a local NGO based in the Upper West Region of Ghana, hosted the event.
" With Africa facing an unprecedented opportunity to transform itself and improve the lives of its people, the World Bank is responding with a new, ambitious strategy which could help African economies take off, the way the economies of Asia did 30 years ago." The world bank has communicated in a press No:2011/346/AFR, WASHINGTON, March 1, 2011
Participants at 2010 WASH budget tracking validation workshop proposed additional sources offunding under the banner of Water Fund. They suggested that the surest way of filing the Sector Financing gap is to continue to advocate for increased government budgetary allocation to the sector through a tax based revenue mobilization strategy.
Over 20 million people, representing about 87 per cent of Ghanaians, do not have improved household toilets, according to the 2010 figures released by the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate (EHSD) of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD).
Speaking from experiences of tackling sustainability and decentralization challenges in South Africa, Jean de la Harpe, Senior Programme Officer International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC) shared the challenges of scaling up sustainability of services at the second Ghana Water forum in October 2010. The gist of this speech was "What has been learnt, what has and not worked''.
