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November 13, 2006
Human Development Report launched
Accra, Nov. 14, GNA - Ghana would definitely meet the
Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of reducing by half
the number of people without access to water by 2015, Mr
Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Minister of Water Resources, Works
and Housing, said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the launch of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) 2006 Human Development Report (HDR), he
said Ghana was poised to achieve at least 85 per cent
coverage of water for its people before the year 2015.
This, he noted, was not by fabrication, but by going
according to the available statistics on access to water in
Ghana.
This year's HDR focuses on water and sanitation and it is
titled, "Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and Global Water
Crisis".
The report has six chapters, with the first half focusing on
how important water is for life and the other half on the
essentials of water for livelihood.
There are six sub-themes namely, "The Crisis in Water and
Sanitation; Water for Human Consumption; The Sanitation
Deficit; Water, Vulnerability and Risk; Water and
Agriculture and Trans-boundary Waters".
Mr Owusu-Agyemang said the country's water policy, which
made the accessibility of water a basic human right has been
completed "and if we are able to increase water coverage in
the rural areas we would make it in achieving the MDG
target".
He said under the new water policy all water systems would
take into account all rural areas through which the system
passed and provide them with potable water before supplying
the targeted urban area.
Mr Owusu-Agyemang said investments in the water sector did
not often reflect in the national budget because they came
in the form of loans and grants.
He said there would be improvement in water supply to the
people in eastern Accra within the next three months while
arrangements were far advanced for the supply of water from
Weija to residents at Okponglo to Madina and beyond.
"We are working on the construction of Kpong Two as the
ultimate solution to the water problem in the eastern part
of Accra."
Mr Owusu-Agyemang said sanitation was one big problem that
the Government was working hard to solve and the Ministry of
Local Government, Rural Development and Environment was
working around the clock on it.
Mr Daouda Toure, United Nations Resident Coordinator, said
the HDR, though the flagship publication of the UNDP; was an
advocacy tool through which governments were expected to
work towards achieving change and ensuring longer and
healthier lives for the people.
He said the Report made water and sanitation the central
focus in the achievement of the MDGs because to half child
mortality or erode gender inequalities, for instance, there
was the need for water and good sanitation.
"Women and girls continue to spend more than four hours in
search of water whilst the men and the boys use that time to
educate themselves or do other things," he said.
Mr Toure called for increased investment in the water sector
saying that the Report recommended that governments should
devote at least a percentage of the GDP to the provision of
water and sanitation.
He said the HDR was not a beauty contest or a league table
competition that one country would feel that it had done
better than the other. Rather, the Report targeted ensuring
an improvement in the quality of life of all people.
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