THE importance of water and sanitation to human existence cannot be overemphasized. Whilst water remains one of the critical sources of survival, sanitation is the key to a healthy and prolonged life.
However, many communities, largely rural and Peri-urban, in the Tamale metropolis have had to rely on polluted dams and streams for water.
Open defecation and the use of polythene bags have also been the norm in these communities due to the absence of improved sanitary facilities.
The result is the poor health of the people evidenced in the number of recorded cases of Cholera, Typhoid and other water-borne and sanitation-related diseases.
To bring a stop to this, New Energy and WaterAid Ghana, two non-governmental organisations, have partnered to create a platform for citizens in Tamale to demand answers from duty bearers on how they are delivering on their mandate to improve access to safe water and sanitation facilities.
The platform, known as the ‘Accountability Day Forum’, is also designed to help the metro assembly in its planning scheme as it identifies and prioritises the needs of the various communities for appropriate interventions in its development plans.
At the recent accountability day forum held at the Presbyterian Lay Training Centre in Tamale, representatives from four Peri-urban communities – Koblimahagu, Sognayili, Dimali and Zuo Zugu – took turns to engage the duty bearers who were invited to the forum.
The community representatives, led by their assembly men, outlined the concerns of their communities in relation to sanitation and access to potable water.
Notable among these concerns was the absence of water and sanitary facilities in their communities.
In Koblimahagu, for instance, the assembly man, Mr Iddrisu Mustapha indicated that a project meant to connect water to most communities in Tamale was abandoned when it got to the Koblimahagu area.
“The connection was not completed and checks from the Ghana Water Company Limited indicated that there were some challenges regarding the completion of the project,” he noted.
For sanitation, the assembly man mentioned that a toilet facility that was initially meant for the Koblimahagu area was rather sited in Kukuo, a nearby community.
“Till date, the space reserved for this toilet is still lying idle, whiles some of our people resort to open defecation and the use of polythene, which is adverse to our health,” he stated.
Mr Mustapha therefore urged the district assembly and the GWCL to endeavour to complete the water expansion project and provide the people of Koblimahagu with a decent public toilet and a waste container.
The assembly man for the Zuo Zugu community, Mr Abdul-Mumin also outlined the challenges facing his community with regards to access to water and sanitation facilities.
“Our people rely on a dam, which is the same source of water for animals.” he mentioned.
Having listened to these concerns, Alhaji Abdulai Haruna Friday, the mayor of Tamale, reiterated the assembly’s commitment to design appropriate interventions and source funds to address the concerns of the various communities.
“Improving access to water and sanitation are so crucial that the assembly cannot renege in providing these essentials,” he stated.
The mayor noted that the forum had come at an opportune time because the assembly was formulating its medium term development plan, adding that “your concerns would therefore be captured in this plan.”
A Policy Officer for WaterAid Ghana, Mr Enoch Cudjoe noted later told the Daily Graphic that the main objective of the accountability forum is to strengthen the relationship between local government authorities and ordinary citizens.
He said this project formed part of the Local Millennium Development Goals Initiative (LMDGI), which is aimed at empowering local government authorities in planning their development agenda.
The Acting Chief Executive Officer of New Energy, Mr Osman Sahanun also indicated that the outcomes of such forums are crucial to the development process.
“It promotes open discussions with all the stakeholders having a collective goal of championing development,” he mentioned.
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