Community Water Sanitation Agency is mandated to facilitate delivery rural water and water- related sanitation services to the rural communities.
Vision
The vision of the CWSA hygiene and sanitation strategy is to ensure ownership and sustainability by investing in community mobilization activities towards the creation of a congenial environment for households to invest in hygiene and sanitation
Focus areas.
This strategy has broad focus area, which includes;
- Safe confinement and disposal of excreta and other wastes
- Safe handling and use of water
- Personal, domestic and environmental hygiene
- Regular hand washing with soap particularly at critical times
Strategy
The CWSA Hygiene and Sanitation Policy will adopt a number of WASH service delivery approaches such as:
- Community-led Total Sanitation which seek to trigger communities to collectively change undesired sanitation behaviors and practices.
- Aggressive social marketing
- Establishment of Sanitation Markets
- Extensive hygiene promotion
- Credit schemes for sanitation
- Support for appropriate technology development –study into technology options- latrines based on local solutions
- Deepen collaboration with relevant institutions
- Documentation and promotion of best practices
Target group.
The CWSA strategy targets Communities especially small communities and towns and Institutions such as schools and clinics
Outline of implementation.
CWSA has laid out various key steps to implementation the Hygiene and Sanitation strategy.
CWSA will carry various baseline Knowledge, Attitude as well as Practices studies and formative research in the communities. IEC materials will be developed to aid behaviour change communication. Sensitization and awareness creation activities will be carried too. CWSA hopes to broaden the key players/actors involved in the hygiene promotion activities.
Other activities laid out include:
- Targeted capacity building in terms of technical training of key actors like Latrine Artisans, WSDBs, WATSANS, Traditional leaders, Hygiene Volunteers, DWSTs, EHAsCWSA has planned to construct more sanitation markets (sanimarts) to re-force the existing ones.
- CWSA seeks to support Institutions as well as households to construct latrines.
Finally CWSA has responsibility to follow-up the progress of these activities through well planned monitoring frame work.
The National Learning Alliance Platform takes place monthly among practitioners in the water and sanitation sector. It seeks to promote vibrant WASH sector discourse in Ghana.The NLLAP is organized by the Resource Centre Network (RCN) Ghana (www,ghana.watsan.net).