Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working in the water and sanitation sector of the economy have vowed to continue to engage government until a substantial amount of the country's budget is channeled into the development of water, sanitation and hygiene.

"We want to ensure that water is available in all our health institutions, schools and households. Most of our health institutions operate without water and it is sad to say". Mr. Ibrahim Musa, a policy manager with WaterAid said at a press conference organized by coalition of NGOs in water and sanitation (CONIWAS) in collaboration with WaterAid in Accra, last Wednesday.

According to him the CSOs want to ensure that every penny released to the sector is fully utilized without it being diverted to other sectors. He called on government to fulfill all commitments announced and make them reflect in the 2011 budget and subsequent years.

CONIWAS urged government not to use Millennium Development Goals alone as the deciding factor for investment in the sector. Any investment plan should look beyond the indicators of the MDGS and 2015. It also suggested that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development as a matter of urgency should come out with a monitoring indicator for environmental sanitation.

According to the group, currently, the data on sanitation is access to use of toilet facilities whilst there is no data on other aspect of sanitation, including solid waste, storm water drainage, clinical and industrial waste, among others. It also encouraged government to look for finances for the sector internally for the sake of sustainability, national ownership and for the avoidance of over reliance on external agencies for support.

The ministries of Local Government and Rural Development and Water Resources, Works and Housing should expedite action on developing the much talked about sector wide monitoring and evaluation framework.

The Chairperson of CONIWAS Mrs. Victoria Daako, on her part said previous calls by the CSOs on government to increase resources to the sector yielded positive response with the government allocating GHc30 million in the 2009 budget.

But to their surprise, about 50% of the amount was either not released by government or not utilized. "We therefore pledge to monitor how the resources allocated to the sector is utilized", she added.

In August this year, the government of Ghana renewed its commitment to addressing the water and sanitation situation in the country. According to the compact which was launched by the Vice President, Mr. John Mahama, government of Ghana promised to designate the sanitation and water sector as part of essential services category and indicate that the commitment will reflect in the 2011 budget.

The government also promised to work with development partners and private sector to ensure that allocations reach US$200m annually towards sanitation and water improvement to meet MDG targets and also sustain improvements beyond 2015.

Further, it promised allocations up to a minimum of 0.5 of GDP to cover capacity building for hygiene education, including proper hand-washing methods, countrywide, outreach of Community-led total sanitation and general enhancement of enabling elements, among others.

The press conference was therefore a called to remind government to make its commitment practical and also to commend it for taking prudent initiatives to prioritize sanitation and water. They also called on development practitioners to lend their support to make the compact workable.

Mr. Minta-Aboagye, Director of the Water Directorate at the Ministry of Resources, Works and Housing, gave the assurance that government is progressively working on water and sanitation issues but the sanitation aspect is the most difficult part. "Dealing with sanitation is a challenging issue than water".

He indicated that the Minister of Finance has expressed its worry over the issue and thinks attitudinal change is a major issue that all stakeholders have to tackle. Currently, Ghana generates about 11, 000 tonnes of refuse everyday, posing a major problem to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA).

As a measure to deal with recalcitrant individuals the government set up a sanitation court in Accra which deals with sanitation related cases but it is yet to be replicated in other parts of the country. The CSOs have therefore advised that religious and opinion leaders should be involved in the education.

A representative from Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Ghana Mr. Sarkodie disclosed that his organisation is currently working with the Ghana Education Service in developing a programme to get sanitation facilities at the various schools in the country.