Two Buckets of Water for Every Person Every Day.
Byline: Frederick Asiamah and Patrice Amegadzie
A new standard for defining access to water has been developed, requiring that every person living in a poor- urban settlement or peri-urban area must have at least 10 gallons or two 34-centimetre buckets full of water per day for drinking, domestic use and maintenance of basic hygiene.
In addition, where household connection through pipelines is not feasible, the distance which an individual will cover to fetch water from a source should be limited to 200 metres.
The new standards are contained in a National Strategy for Community Participation in Management of Urban WASH Services which was launched last Thursday in Accra by Hon Nii Nortey Dua, Deputy Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing.
The Strategy is a product of the Water Access, Sanitation and Hygiene for Urban Poor (WASH-UP) project of the Corporative Housing Foundation International and adopted by the Ministries of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH) and Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD). It was supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
"With the assumption that most of the target localities for this strategy will not have heavy industrial establishments within their catchment areas, a daily per capita water demand of 40 litres [10.56 gallons] is sufficient for drinking, domestic use and maintenance of basic hygiene for residents," the 38-page strategy document prescribes.
"What this means is that whoever is implementing a water project in a community must ensure that the facility can guarantee, at the least, this amount of water for every individual," Mr Patrick Apoya, consultant for the development of the strategy, explained in an interview with Public Agenda.
Giving an overview of the document at the launching, he emphasised that the quality of water delivered at drawing points should meet the national drinking water standards at the minimum. In other words, water quality should conform to standards set by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA).
He added that the strategy, which is laid out in 11 sections, underscores the need to recognise water as a human right. However, there were key issues that needed to be properly addressed before the strategy takes effect.
Speaking on behalf of the substantive Minister, Hon. E.T Mensah, Deputy Minister Nortey Dua asserted that an estimated 51% of Ghanaians live in urban areas but only 62% of urban dwellers have access to improved and clean water.
"The rest have to do with unhygienic and unsafe water from several sources," he decried.
He therefore recognised the need to increase physical access, affordability, and sustainability of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in poor and peri-urban communities.
Cheryl Anderson, Director for USAID-Ghana, assured that the Agency would continuously support and complement the efforts of the government of Ghana in all to address developmental challenges.
For his part, Mr Albert Wilde, Country Director for CHF International, highlighted some success of the WASH-UP project of his organisation, mentioning that the organisation had complemented the efforts of the Ghana Water Company Limited in laying pipelines in poor urban communities such as Avenor and Nima in the Accra Metropolis.
Overall, the WASH-UP project offered water access to 29,000 people across the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA).
He challenged Ghanaians "to be the change they want to be" as it was the surest way to ensure all our developmental goals were achieved.
Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com)
A new standard for defining access to water has been developed, requiring that every person living in a poor- urban settlement or peri-urban area must have at least 10 gallons or two 34-centimetre buckets full of water per day for drinking, domestic use and maintenance of basic hygiene.
In addition, where household connection through pipelines is not feasible, the distance which an individual will cover to fetch water from a source should be limited to 200 metres.
The new standards are contained in a National Strategy for Community Participation in Management of Urban WASH Services which was launched last Thursday in Accra by Hon Nii Nortey Dua, Deputy Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing.
The Strategy is a product of the Water Access, Sanitation and Hygiene for Urban Poor (WASH-UP) project of the Corporative Housing Foundation International and adopted by the Ministries of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH) and Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD). It was supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
"With the assumption that most of the target localities for this strategy will not have heavy industrial establishments within their catchment areas, a daily per capita water demand of 40 litres [10.56 gallons] is sufficient for drinking, domestic use and maintenance of basic hygiene for residents," the 38-page strategy document prescribes.
"What this means is that whoever is implementing a water project in a community must ensure that the facility can guarantee, at the least, this amount of water for every individual," Mr Patrick Apoya, consultant for the development of the strategy, explained in an interview with Public Agenda.
Giving an overview of the document at the launching, he emphasised that the quality of water delivered at drawing points should meet the national drinking water standards at the minimum. In other words, water quality should conform to standards set by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA).
He added that the strategy, which is laid out in 11 sections, underscores the need to recognise water as a human right. However, there were key issues that needed to be properly addressed before the strategy takes effect.
Speaking on behalf of the substantive Minister, Hon. E.T Mensah, Deputy Minister Nortey Dua asserted that an estimated 51% of Ghanaians live in urban areas but only 62% of urban dwellers have access to improved and clean water.
"The rest have to do with unhygienic and unsafe water from several sources," he decried.
He therefore recognised the need to increase physical access, affordability, and sustainability of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in poor and peri-urban communities.
Cheryl Anderson, Director for USAID-Ghana, assured that the Agency would continuously support and complement the efforts of the government of Ghana in all to address developmental challenges.
For his part, Mr Albert Wilde, Country Director for CHF International, highlighted some success of the WASH-UP project of his organisation, mentioning that the organisation had complemented the efforts of the Ghana Water Company Limited in laying pipelines in poor urban communities such as Avenor and Nima in the Accra Metropolis.
Overall, the WASH-UP project offered water access to 29,000 people across the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA).
He challenged Ghanaians "to be the change they want to be" as it was the surest way to ensure all our developmental goals were achieved.
Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com)
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