Coalition of Non-Governmental Organisations in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) has elected Martin Dery as its new Chairman.
The other elected executives include Vice Chairman, Atta Arhin; Northern Zone representative, Karim Abdul; Middle Zone representative, Nuhu Umar, and; Southern Zone representative, William Domiappella.
Mr. Dery was elected at the 27th edition of the Mole Conference in Big Ada in the Greater Accra Region.
In his acceptance address, Mr. Martin Dery said the coalition would in the coming years advocate for a new concept for water coverage in Ghana.
He said CONIWAS would move away from the concept of domestic water coverage to the concept of household water coverage. Household water concept, he explained, gives impetus to the fact that water service provision at the household level has multiple uses and some of these uses are not just for drinking, but are directly linked to the wellbeing of the household, especially nutrition for children.
“We will be advocating that we should try and shift the goal posts in our definition of water supply that will ensure that households have extra water beyond what they drink, bath and use to cook, to also use to support their livelihoods and income generation,” Mr. Dery underscored.
According to him, household income was going to be very crucial in Ghana’s drive to promoting safe sanitation at the household level.
“We all know that the free days are over; we have been talking about subsidies for sometime now, CONIWAS is not a group just advocating for blanket subsidies, we are interested in targeting, incentivising, and innovative financing that do not just dole out facilities to people, but which supports people to build their own facilities,” Mr. Dery explained.
To effectively carry out its advocacy activities, Mr. Dery said CONIWAS would avail itself to capacity building opportunities to learn about the numerous policies and frameworks that exist in the sector and to transfer the knowledge to the wider citizens it represented.
He expressed gratitude to all members of CONIWAS for the trust they have reposed in him and the other executives and promised to work diligently to merit that trust.
He also thanked UNICEF, IRC Ghana, World Vision Ghana and WaterAid Ghana for their immense support for CONIWAS over the years.
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