News:
November 27, 2023
Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources Dr. Freda Akosua Prempeh has urged colleagues in the House to support the 2024 Economic Policy of the Nana Akufo-Addo government for her ministry to continue addressing very important and basic needs of Ghanaians.
According to her government has provided fifty thousand house hold toilets in low income communities in the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi.
In an interview with members of the parliamentary press corps just after she took her turn to debate the budget on the floor on Thursday, November 23, 2023 she further noted that she was in Kumasi recently to commission thirty-eight toilets at various basic schools and Junior High Schools (JHS) and the ministry would continue.
She was positive on the fight to end open defecation with support from government and the World Bank.
Dr. Akosua Prempeh further explained that government has provided water facilities in some communities in the Country.
And other issue of concern to her that she put across was the illegal mining and sand wining in the country that is destroying the water bodies, saying “water security and safety is very important, and we need to work so hard to stop the illegal mining and sand wining, and this should be a thing of the past”.
The Sanitation and Water Resources Minister again, pointed out that the issue of WASH cannot be talked about without its health implications; “we want to take the WASH project from the health implication point of view if you do not have access to good drinking water.
If your hygiene facilities are not good you are prone to all kinds of diseases cholera and all that, we were in this country when in 2016 some people lost their lives because of cholera but this days you do not hear of it because we have put certain measures in place in terms of the provision of the wash facilities.
“I want the House to support the budget for government to support the ministry support from the World Bank the GAMA project for us to be able to support more institutional facilities to provide more water delivery in our various communities across the country.”
According to her, all that is being talked about are already in motion; we have started a program, with the World Bank in 2022, we are rolling them in faces, we have done phase one and two we are about rolling out the third phase, he said.
The Asafo sewage is part, we would not only rely on the budget but our donor partners and World Bank, I urge my colleagues to support because at the end of the day water is essential life and it’s what our life revolves around, she emphasised.
“I believe today we have all visited the washroom; you cannot keep fecal in your stomach. Water cuts across all the sectors of this country, health and agriculture is water, we are supporting educational facilities with water”.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com