By Patience Gbeze/Mariam Haruna, GNA
Accra, Nov. 1, GNA – The 29th Edition of the Mole Conference will be held at Villa Cisneros, Sogakope in the Volta region from November 5 to November 9 and will highlight on the status of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector.
The Mole XXIX Conference, on the theme, “Reforming Ghana’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector towards Universal Access” will also sensitise WASH stakeholders and make inputs into Government’s WASH Policies towards universal access for everyone everywhere by 2030.
The deliberations at the conference will focus more on advocacy and support efforts at institutional re-alignment of directorates, departments and agencies under the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources and related Ministries.
Mrs Basilia Nanbigne, Executive Secretary for Ghana Coalition of NGOs in the Water and Sanitation Sector (CONIWAS), announced this at News conference to highlight on the pre-Mole XXIX Conference on WASH and some achievements chalked over the years.
She said discussions would centre around institutionalised re-alignment for accelerated service delivery; Integrity social Accountability and Performance Monitoring, Localising SDG6 for sustainable financing at all levels, and effective sector policies and strategies.
She noted that the Mole Conference series had witnessed the consistent growth in interest and importance since its inception in 1989 among civil society, policy makers, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, Local Government, Private Sector and Development Partners alike.
“The Conference has evolved from what was primarily an NGO forum into, perhaps, the most important multi-stakeholder platform within the WASH sector in Ghana. Over the years, the Conference has attracted several players and stakeholders on an annual basis, locally and internationally, to deliberate on critical issues affecting the sector,” she said.
Mrs Nanbigne said it was widely believed that calls from the Mole Conference series had played a key role in various institutional reforms in Ghana’s WASH sector.
Notably among them was the de-coupling of rural water supply from the functions of the then Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation, culminating in the establishment of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency, which has made it possible for majority of rural communities in Ghana to gain access to improved drinking water today, she added.
She said the theme was significant in view of the on-going changes in the sector. The WASH sector has witnessed some changes following the commencement of the SDGs in January, 2016.
“First, a Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources was created in January, 2017 and brought a renewed hope of revival and improved WASH sector performance, with the confidence that sanitation and hygiene was going to receive the needed political priority and institutional focus.”
“Secondly, the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) has commissioned some reforms within the rural and small-town water sub-sector, with the ultimate aim of employing professionalism to consolidate the gains made in the sub-sector.”
Mrs Nanbigne said in view of those promising institutional reviews and the launch of a National Sanitation Campaign in 2017, among other initiatives, there were not clear towards universal access to water and sanitation in Ghana.
“Access to good drinking water that used to be encouraging during the MDG era has been hit with poor levels of service with regards to the expectation in the SDGs. Access to improved sanitation is still a mirage; while a few regions like the Northern, Upper West and Upper East need to be commended for their efforts at reducing open defecation and increasing access to household latrines,” she said.
She noted that some regions did not have visible signs of reduction in open defecation or improving basic sanitations and emphasised the need to give a little push to those regions to achieve the goal.
Mr Ibrahim Musah, WASH Consultant at CONIWAS said practitioners would be at the Conference to present full level experiences with respect to how boreholes and toilets were functioning and how policies such National Water and Sanitation Policies and other related policies had impacted on the people.
He said their current focus was about reforming the sector and how to ensure that they got robust water and sanitation policy to reflect the SDGs’ aspirations of all on water.
Mr Benjamin Arthur, Development Consultant, said one thing about advocacy was “when you advocate today, you will not see the impact today, it will happen in five to ten years’ time and that is what we have seen with the Mole Conference.
“When we started in 1989, there was no policy in the sector. We had only Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation and in terms of water sector, they were the only institution managing both rural and urban. So one of the earlier conferences advocated change for paradigm shift, separating the rural from the urban and that was one of the important success of the conference,” he said.
“It took time though but eventually came through, rural water was separated from urban water, and we say let’s create an institution to manage the rural water, which gave birth to Community Water and Sanitation Agency to manage the rural water. All these things emanated from conference advocacy.”
GNA
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