Get the WASH right!
………….Reflections for a water-sanitation conference
In a couple of hours, I will set out to Sogakope in the Volta Region to attend the ongoing annual water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conference. This is the 29thin the annual series of Mole conferences organized by the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS). As I leave Accra, I cannot help but reflect on the state of our country’s water, sanitation and hygiene.
IS WATER MORE ESSENTIAL THAN EDUCATION?
It is said (and rightly so) that water is life. The Paramount Chief of the Tefle Traditional Area, Togbe Dugbaza VIII is reported to have said at the ongoing WASH conference that “water is more essential than education”. Of course, this sounds like a very outlandish thing to say.
How can a traditional ruler think and say such a thing in public! But he lives with his people so without a doubt, he was expressing the sentiments from the grass-root level of our society. Togbe is right in making this assertion; it is not a controversial statement at all. Togbe argued that without water, you cannot live; and that water is needed to sustain life.
On the contrary, education is not needed on the very basic level to sustain life; you can live without ever stepping a foot in a classroom to learn how to read and write. But although illiteracy does not constitute a death sentence, it sets you back in human progression. If given the choice, how many of our disadvantaged citizens will choose water over education? But why should this even be a choice in 61-year old Ghana!
How did such an absurd thought enter the thoughts of a respected chief of our land? Thoughts are the products of our reality. This type of extreme assertion comes from a place of unnecessary deprivation. When your citizens do not have water to sustain daily living, then they will be tempted to view education as a luxury. Ignorance will be considered as a tolerable and necessary evil.
What is the use of a state if it cannot guarantee the provision of something as basic as water to its citizens? Water should be a human right, yet, there are parts of Ghana where residents fetch water from dirty rivers. Worst of all, some of our people share the same water bodies with animals. I live in Accra; and I buy water from very suspicious sources; delivered to my house in a funny-looking dirty contraption of a truck.
FIGHTING INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Kofi Annan, a distinguished son of Ghana, who became the president of the world in his position as the Secretary General of the United Nations, made several pronouncements about the importance of water, sanitation and hygiene to our existence. One of the profound things he said was: “We shall not defeat any of the infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking water, sanitation, and basic health care.”
The developing world, which includes Ghana, will remain under-developed until we fix our water, sanitation and hygiene issues. It will not matter for how many years Ghana remains independent. We can celebrate as many Independence Day events in all regional and district capitals, with 1000s of school children, market women, teachers, labourers, as well as the idle and unemployed youth marching and dancing in the very hot steamy tropical sun.
Hiding comfortably under a shed, our presidents and ‘Honourables” can take the salutations of the marchers and dancers, with broad grins on their faces. Our traditional rulers will decorate the “march pass” venues across the country with their colourful cultural attires. But none of these antics will bring us the development we so much desire. Our efforts at national development will remain futile.
It is important that we tackle our under-development problems at the root. According to the late Kofi Annan, at the root and at the very heart of our funk are the unresolved problems of access to safe drinking water, poor sanitation, and access to health care.
We will continue to be sick, and suffer diseases that the developed countries have long ago found cure. Mosquitoes will continue to bite and kills us because we provide them with favourable breeding grounds and make them very happy. We will have cholera because our gutters are filthy and food is prepared and sold at some of these gutters. Our public toilets are abominations. Children in several schools do not have toilets. We pray that when in the public space, nature does not call us. Many of our people do not have safe drinking water.
IS SANITATION MORE IMPORTANT THAN INDEPENDENCE?
In his wisdom, Mahatma Ghandi, the “Father of the Nation” of India proclaimed that “Sanitation is more important than independence”. Cleanliness and sanitation were at the centre of his thoughts. Sanitation should be for all and cleanliness should be a way of life. No human being should live in filth. We should extend our national pride about independence to national cleanliness. Our first president, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah said that Ghana’s independence is meaningless unless it is linked to the total liberation of the African continent.
Now, the entire continent of Africa has been liberated from colonial rule. Nkrumah’s words should boom from a water, sanitation, cleanliness and hygiene point of view. The independence of Ghana will be meaningless unless it is tied to liberation from our sanitation, water, uncleanliness and unhygienic challenges.
Let’s admit it, anyone who cannot manage his/her basic water and sanitation situation does not have life figured out. If you cannot find or afford water to take care of your basic human needs, you will not only be thirsty but you will live in a state of funk. If you have no clue of what to do with the waste you generate, the waste will potentially engulf you. Borla, toilet, urine and all sorts of human waste will surround you until you get deep into unimaginable stench. Not having access to water to drink and even to wash your hands reduces you to a lower condition of human advancement.
WASH SHOULD BE A NATIONAL WAR
Displaying disrespect for WASH is tantamount to disrespecting our own humanity. Not being able to resolve our national WASH matters is uncivilized and is a stain on our humanity and everything we stand for as an independent nation state. It is time to take bold and decisive actions to ‘WASH’ Ghana. We should declare war against this complex but solvable problem.
The path we are currently on is not just irresponsible; it is unsustainable. We should get the WASH right or else everything else will remain stagnant.
No comments:
Post a Comment