Continue To Write Compelling Stories On Major Challenges Affecting Water, Sanitation And Hygiene Sector-GWJN National Coordinator Urges Media Practitioners

The National Coordinator of Ghana Wash Journalists Network (GWJN), Mr Justice Lee Adoboe, has stressed the need for media practitioners to continue to write compelling stories on the major challenges affecting the country’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector in order for the policy and decision makers to fix the problems.

According to Mr. Adoboe, it is important for Ghanaian journalists to be interested in using their professional skills and knowledge to promote high-quality standards in the country’s water, sanitation and hygiene sector to safeguard the lives of the people in the country.

Mr. Adoboe made the foregoing call to the media practitioners when he was speaking at the national delegates conference being organized by GWJN in Dodowa Forest Hotel in the Greater Accra on Thursday, August 25, 2022.

The training workshop is being financed through the first Roddenberry Foundation’s +1 Global Fund grant to GWJN.

Themed; "Building A Strong Media Coalition for Effective WASH Advocacy," the event brought together over 25 journalists from the Western, Eastern, Ashanti Volta, Upper East and Bono Regions.

The three major topics being discussed at the workshop are Ghana's sanitation situation: Pointers by the 2021 PHC and 2020 JMP reports to be handled by Mr. Godfred Fiifi Boadi, a senior public health engineer from the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, Overview of the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector in Ghana, progress, gaps, and way forward, to be led by Mr. Ibrahim Musah, a seasoned WASH policy specialist, and Technical Lead for GWJN and the role of media in Ghana's WASH SDGs agenda, to be handled by Mr. Ibrahim Musah and Mr. Edmund Smith-Asante, Regional Page Editor of Daily Graphic and a multiple award winning WASH journalist.

Generally, the delegates further discussed how to strengthen the regional networks, and then specific assignments are agreed upon for the regional coordinators.

"As a delegates training workshop, the goal is to see the delegates returning to the regional branches and briefing the entire regional memberships on the knowledge shared and decisions made on the way forward for the role of the network in the WASH sector. 

"This is to ensure that all regions are working at the same quickened pace towards an accelerated national agenda for the attainment of the WASH SDGs," Mr. Adoboe stated.

According to Mr. Adoboe, statistically, Ghana was on the path to achieve universal access to safe and affordable drinking water by the due date (2030) as targeted under the United Nations (SDG) 6 hence “measures have to be put in place to afford the quality and sustainability of water because without that, achieving the SDG Goal 6 target would be difficult.”

The Ghana Wash Journalists Network, is a voluntary not-for-profit organisation comprising Ghanaian journalists who are interested in using their professional knowledge to promote high-quality standards in the country’s WASH sector.

As a media-based organisation, it draws members from various media houses in the country, trains them and guides them to embark on a WASH advocacy publications in their various media houses.

Below is the concept note 

CONCEPT NOTE FOR THE GHANA WASH JOURNALISTS NETWORK (GWJN) NATIONAL DELEGATES TRAINING WORKSHOP AT FOREST HOTEL, DODOWA FROM WEDNESDAY AUGUST 24 TO THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2022.

On January 1, 2016 the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by world leaders in September 2015 officially came into force. As a sequel to the previous Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the SDGs set various ambitious goals in various sectors, to ensure sustainable and inclusive development globally.

One of the targets, indeed, target 6 of the SDGs spells out responsibilities of countries for the universal access to safe water and improved sanitation and hygiene facilities.

There are several related targets under the target six, all of which are expected to ensure sustainable access to safe water and improved sanitation. 

These are 6.1 By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all

6.2 By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations
6.3 By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally

6.4 By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity

6.5 By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate

6.6 By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes
6.A By 2030, expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water- and sanitation-related activities and programmes, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies

6.B Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management

The importance of the WASH sector targets are such that they contribute immensely to  the attainment of the other goals in health, in food security, industrial development, poverty reduction, education, and many others.

As countries were making efforts in laying the proper foundations towards achieving these targets, then the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world with its severe health and economic consequences, and became the loudest wake-up call to the world to take the sustainable provision of water, sanitation and hygiene more seriously than it ever did.

WHERE GHANA LIES:

Six years into the implementation of various programs to drive the country towards achieving the WASH sector SDG targets by 2030, there is the need for the country to pause and access its performance in order to ensure that the targets are achieved in a sustainable manner.

Between July and October 2021, the Ghana Statistical Service undertook the Population and Housing Census, and some of its findings provided a clear data on access to safe water and improved sanitation in Ghana.

The 2021 PHC estimated access to basic drinking water in Ghana at 87.7 percent, with 96.7 percent in urban areas and 74.4 percent in rural areas. 

In its Report (Progress on Household Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene,2000-2020) , the Joint Monitoring Platform (JMP) also put access to water in Ghana at 86 percent. Safely Managed Water was , however, at 41 percent in the same report. 

Urban water access was 96 percent and 72 percent for rural areas.

On sanitation, the 2021 PHC stated that 1,477,747 households in Ghana lack household toilets with households without toilets in the rural areas standing at 31.3 percent, and 8.9 percent for urban areas bringing the national total to 17.7 percent.

The PHC also put the national figure for open defecation at 17.7 percent with regional and district variations. The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) concluded that the levels of open defecation dropped only marginally in two decades.

As the fourth estate of the realm, so-called, the media have a key role to play in ensuring that whether the country is on course or off-course towards achieving these goals, the efforts are either sustained, or accelerated for the desired results.

It is for this reason the Ghana WASH Journalists Network seeks to strengthen the capacity of its members across the country in their efforts to bring out the reality on the  ground to help policy and decision makers, as well as other stakeholders in the  WASH sector to identify where there are gaps, and what particular gaps there are in the decisions being made in the sector. 

This will ensure that the right steps are taken at the required pace so Ghana does no miss these noble targets.