Ghana is in the process of turning all water reservoirs into security zones to safeguard the provision of the quality of treated water for the people.
Executive Secretary of the Water Resources Commission (WRC), Ben Ampomah, disclosed this at the United Nations University-Institute of Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) Stakeholders’ Engagement workshop on the 61st National Level Learning Alliance Platform (NLLAP) held in Accra.
He added that very soon water would be treated as a security resource to protect it from being abused by encroachers.
According to Mr. Ampomah, a security post had been created at the Weija River to ward off some people or animals from polluting the water.
He encouraged stakeholders in Ghana to adopt and adapt the Sustainable Development Goal Policy Support System (SDG PSS) since it was user-friendly and generic.
Mr. Ampomah said one advantage of the SDG PSS was its flexibility, and thus urged stakeholders to tweak the system by adding more components that are suitable to the Ghanaian context to enable them monitor the implementation of the SDGs effectively.
He explained further that it was critical to unpack the system also to develop and find a way to have an agreeable system to suite Ghana’s local and national contexts.
Mr. Ampomah urged stakeholders in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector to contribute effectively to enrich the SDG PSS for the benefit of all countries.
He expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the UNU-INWEH, the Korean Environment Corporation (KECO) and the Ministry of Environment (MOE) from the Republic of Korea, and the United Nations Office for Sustainable Development and the Water Research Institute (WRI) for bringing the workshop to Ghana.
In his introductory remarks, the Head of the United Nations Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD), administered by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), Dr. Jong Soo Yoon, indicated that experts have warned that the world would experience more environmental catastrophes if efforts were not made to effectively implement the SDGs.
He said despite these warnings, insufficient progress has been made.
According to Dr. Yoon, it was critical for stakeholders in the WASH sector to analyze the gaps and challenges and identify its effects on domestic policies and behaviour.
The UNOSD, he noted would continue to facilitate and monitor the implementation of the SDGs especially the water goals and targets, adding that several international bodies were carrying our research on water.
On the SDG PSS, the UNOSD head said it was an evidenced-based solution approach to identifying the challenges in the implementation of the SDGs and resolving them.
Dr. Yoon added that the SDG PSS which was comprised of six components-status component, capacity assessment component, policy & institutional assessment component, finance component, DRR/resilience component and gender mainstreaming component was very important in the implementation and tracking of progress of the SDGs.
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