Stakeholders within the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Sector on Friday agreed that government needs to increase annual budget for the sector since it is the pivot of all development programmes.
Mr Rudolf Amenga-Etego, Executive Director of GrassRoots Africa, a non governmental organization that advocates for improved water and sanitation services especially in rural areas, suggested that 1.5 percent of government’s annual budget should be dedicated to improving Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services
Speaking at a day’s workshop to discuss Government’s budgetary allocation for Water and Sanitation issues, he said about 1.4 billion people will require improved sanitation services in Africa to facilitate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal on water and sanitation.
The workshop was attended by members of the civil society organizations, non governmental organizations, staff of GWCL and AVRL and the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA)
“In Ghana, the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) requires about 100 million dollars per year to invest in infrastructure development alone,” he added.
Mr Amenga-Etego identified the lack of money as the biggest obstacle that hindered the implementation of policies that could help Ghana achieved improved services in the water and sanitation sectors.
He admitted that investment in the sector had seen a slight increase; however, he said water was a high investment sector and the development of the water sector was a crucial one for government since water is a basic necessity.
Suggesting alternative sources of funding, Mr Amenga-Etego said there should be a special levy on high water users such as the breweries and the mining companies as well as special taxes in the likeness of the talk time tax to ensure enough funding in the sector.
He also said the business of supplying treated water to ships should be the core business for GWCL and Aqua Vitens Rands Limited since they are the main providers of water in Ghana.