A GNA feature by Iddi Yire
Accra, Dec. 15, GNA – Community participation and ownership of projects is very essential in ensuring the success and sustainability of SNV Netherlands Development Organisation’s Voice For Change (V4C) – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects in Ghana.
The V4C is an evidence based advocacy programme being implemented by the SNV Netherlands Development Organisation in partnership with the International Food and Policy Research Institute and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Dutch Ministry is funding the programme for the period 2016 to 2020 as part of its worldwide effort to reinforce space for CSOs worldwide.
The programme is focused on four thematic areas – Food and Nutrition Security, Renewable Energy and WASH.
It seeks to ensure increasing equity and access to sustainable, equitable and affordable Sanitation and Hygiene services and products.
The provision of WASH facilities by both government and development partners such as SNV for the people, also calls for community ownership and their sustainability through regular maintenance by Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and the project communities.
Sustainability is key to the long term success of WASH services delivery, and this involves the commitment to continuously invest in the provision of new WASH infrastructure, as well as ensuring the maintenance of existing ones.
Ghana’s vision for the water and sanitation sector is ‘sustainable basic water and sanitation service for all by 2025″.
To ensure the effective and sustainable implementation of WASH projects, V4C must promote community ownership and empowerment among team members.
Community participation in project planning and management is important in promoting development at the basic community level; which is very critical for sustainable national development.
Community members are important partners in national development, hence their participation, ownership and sustainability of the projects has the multiplier effect of enhancing the overall development of the local community and contributing to national development and economic growth.
For instance, a development partner, decided to cite a bore-hole in the middle of a village, hoping to provide clean water for the people.
However, after the completion of the project, the women of the village still walked down to the river site to fetch water.
The bore-hole was gradually becoming a whitewashed elephant and therefore, a study had to be conducted to find out what might have gone wrong.
It was realised that the women would have preferred the project to be cited some distance outside the village, so that they would be able to converse with each other as they walked to fetch water without having to look over their shoulders as to who is watching them.
All these troubles could have been averted if the project implementers had taken time to engage the members of the community on where to site the project.
In implementing projects, the capacity of community members should be built through mentoring and participation in how to maintain the facilities.
Once the community owns the project, and they have the technical knowhow to maintain it, when the project life span elapses, maintenance would be guaranteed.
According to the World Health Organisation/United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) the performance of Ghana’s water sector indicates that 87 per cent of the population used improved drinking water in 2012; 93 per cent in urban areas and 81 per cent in rural areas.
This gives credence to the fact that as a nation ‘we hold in high esteem the sage that water is life’.
One other issue of great concern, however, is the fact that progress towards the achievement of the target for sanitation lags behind.
According to the Community Water and Sanitation Agency the current sanitation coverage is just 14 per cent, which is very low compared to the set Sustainable Development Goal target.
Despite the gains towards achieving the target for water, significant challenges remain in ensuring that the newly provided water infrastructure deliver sustainable services continue well into the future.
The impact of poor sanitation continues to take a heavy toll on people’s well-being and the economy more broadly.
As a nation, the time has come for us to consider moving away from one-off project-based approach to a more sustainable service approach that will last for a long period.
Open drains must be covered to avoid them being filled with litters and later serving as breeding grounds for mosquitoes; which leads to malaria.
The millions of dollars, which government used annually for the importation of malaria drugs could have been used for the socio-economic development of the country.
A study by the Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water in 2013 shows that 17 million Ghanaians drink water that is not safe; whereas the World Health Organisation/United Nations International Children’s Fund Joint Monitoring Team (WHO/UNICEF JMP 2015 report revealed that 19 of Ghana’s population practice open defecation and 58 per cent use shared latrines.
“More than five in six Ghanaians do not have access to improved sanitation. 3,600 children under five die annually in Ghana from diarrhoea,” WHO 2015 – Global Health Observatory data repository.
Research findings indicate that $ 290 million a year is lost in Ghana due to poor sanitation and $ 79 million a year lost in Ghana due to open defecation.
Ghana exceeded its MDG target of 78 per cent for drinking water, but off-track from the MDG target of 54 per cent for sanitation and hygiene.
Research also shows that 20 per cent of urban population had access to improved sanitation facilities, while only eight per cent of the rural population had access to improved sanitation facilities.
Mr Eric Banye, the Country Programme Coordinator (V4C Partnership) SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, said in order to address the issue of sanitation in the country, there was the need for attitudinal change among Ghanaians.
Speaking at a seminar for media professionals in November at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region, Mr Banye said inequity still exist between urban and rural coverage, between the wealthy and poor class in the community; stating that women and girls especially suffer most.
“The needy lack the voice on issues and also lack representation in decision-making process,’ he said.
‘The lack of commitment to implement existing bye-laws, policies, regulations and frameworks, was hampering efforts to ensure that the WASH project was effectively implemented,’ he added.
The MDG target 10 aims at halving by the close of 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
This means providing potable water and sanitation facilities for communities and their schools, health facilities and households through constructing boreholes, hand-dug wells, and expanding urban water delivery systems.
Investments in WASH facilities by both government and development partners should therefore, take into account not just the provision of the facility but must incorporate the life cycle cost of the facility in the project design.
The government’s target of providing 20,000 boreholes at the cost of GH₵ 17 million from the consolidated fund over five-year period, will be better enhanced if the beneficiary MMDAs are made to see the project as national issue, which has to be periodically maintained to ensure its sustainability.
The MMDAs must consider setting aside a component of their annual budgets for the maintenance of WASH facilities to ensure that the efforts of government and development partners do not just become a nine-day wonder.
To safeguard an effective WASH sector in the country, the activities of the various players should be harmonised through the establishment of a District Operational Manual to guide them in the sector.
Ensuring continuous WASH services to all populations is very critical, without which improved health outcomes for the investments made will not be achieved.