“Water, in its various occurrences, management and uses, is an essential component of human development and is a crosscutting factor in current development priorities driving Ghana’s goal of achieving sustainable development” – Ghana National Water Policy, 2007 (p.6). The availability of this indispensable resource, however, now depends heavily on climate change. In fact, experts predict that by the Year 2100 there would be increased water availability in moist tropics and high latitudes, with decreasing water availability and increasing drought in mid-latitudes and semi-arid low latitudes.

The need to mainstream climate change into development planning is particularly underscored by the fact that Ghana is already experiencing the adverse impacts of climate change. Recurrent drought, flood and climate induced diseases such as malaria and cerebrospinal meningitis in most parts of the country and the associated loss of property and lives can be ascribed to climate change. Relief and rehabilitation efforts have become a constant major drain on Ghana’s development drive.

Environmental sanitation is among the powerful drivers of human development as it affects quality of life; it can improve health and wealth. It cuts across all sectors of the economy including those that concern health, environmental protection, improvement of human settlements and services, tourism, and general economic productivity.