Gabriel Engmann
The Sanitary Engineer for the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA SWP), Gabriel Engmann, has revealed that they have constructed 59,000 toilet facilities in both Greater Accra and Kumasi.
The GAMA Sanitation and Water Project is aimed at providing access to improved sanitation in low-income urban area communities.
He indicated that GAMA SWP has provided 598 gender-friendly sanitation facilities for schools and health care centers in Greater Accra and Kumasi as well.
According to him, a collaboration with Ghana Water Company has resulted in the connection of about 15,000 households to water supply in the Greater Accra Metropolitan area.
Mr. Engmann said they have built capacity and engaged MMDA’s, Ghana Education Service, Ministries, chiefs and opinion leaders, media, and other stakeholders to help educate the public on the need for WASH in the various low-income urban areas.
“We have done some training at the courts so that people who are supposed to have toilet facilities at their homes but do not have are prosecuted and the judges prescribe some measures to assist the beneficiaries to go and own a toilet by a time frame and that has helped to build more toilet facilities”.
The GAMA SWP Engineer is hopeful that they will expand to other regions but was quick to add that funding has been the challenge and called for external support to ensure that other regions also benefit from GAMA SWP projects.
“Currently we are being funded by the World Bank through the government of Ghana and we have made several appeals and initiated several processes to get additional funding to expand our services to other parts of the country so we are hoping that we get a quick response so that we can expand this good initiative to other regions”.
He made this known at this year’s Mole WASH Conference 2023 organized by the Ghana Coalition of Non-Governmental Organisations in Water, and Sanitation (CONIWAS), at Jirapa in the Jirapa municipality of the Upper West region.
The Mole Conference is an annual gathering that brings together WASH practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders from across the globe to share insights, and innovations, and chart the course forward for the sector.
This year’s MOLE WASH 34th conference is under the theme: ‘Building Inclusive and Resilient Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.
As part of efforts to support the media in the WASH sector, World Vision Ghana and GAMA Sanitation and Water Project sponsored some selected journalists from the Media Coalition against Open Defecation (M-CODe) to partake in this year’s Mole Conference in Jirapa in the Upper West region.
BY Eric Kombat, Jirapa