By
Samira Larbie, GNA
Accra, Aug. 23, GNA – Mr Nicholas
Adamtey, a Public Policy Consultant, has called on the government to allocate
more resources towards the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector in the
effort to attain the Sustainable Development Goals six (SDG 6) by 2030.
He said research has revealed that
budgetary allocations for WASH service delivery was not adequate at the
national and districts levels and in some cases the funds were either delayed
or were not released in full.
“Targeting and providing actual outcome
indicators on WASH related issues has been a challenge at the national and
district levels which, makes it difficult to assess whether resource
allocations are yielding the expected outcomes,” he said.
Mr Adamtey made the call in Accra at a
national dissemination meeting on: “Budget Tracking and Analysis of Water,
Sanitation and Hygiene Expenditure in Bongo and Kassena Nankana West District.”
The meeting was organized by the
National Level Learning Alliance Platform (NLLP) and the Resource Centre Network
(RCN) in collaboration with Water Aid Ghana with support from Canada.
Mr Adamtey said the two districts, which
depended largely on the District Assemblies Common Fund, suffer from the
phenomenon of inadequate funding.
He said the assemblies have a major role
to play not only to generate more for their Internally Generated Funds (IGF)
but also to efficiently utilize whatever funds they generate and prioritise
WASH interventions.
Mr Adamtey called on national and
district level institutions to provide data on WASH related indicators to help
monitor the progress of programmes.
Mr Vitus Adaboo Azeem, an independent
Consultant, said the development partner’s contribution towards WASH activities
in 2017/2018 was 60.3 per cent, adding; “This means that the sector is donor
dependent and vulnerable as reduction in support can decrease the total
budgeted expenditure.”
He called on government to provide
adequate funding for WASH so as to achieve the SDGs ‘6’ to improve livelihoods.
Mr Abdul Nashiru Mohammed, Country Director
of Water Aid Ghana, said the country is considered as one of the successful
ones among the Sub-Sahara countries, hence the need for government to increase
funding to the sector.
He said the long-term vision of the
Government of Ghana is universal access to safe drinking-water by 2025 and to
eliminate open defecation by 2030.
GNA
