Watershed enables community involvement in WASH planning

Nyame Bekyere, Mile 10.5, Israel, Domeabra, Tarkwa Banso and Kofikrom are hard-to-reach communities located in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipal Assembly in the Western Region of Ghana.  Their sources of water are heavily polluted due to illegal mining and household activities. However, for many years, community members did not understand the Municipal Assembly Planning and budgeting process and therefore did not participate to have their Water, Sanitation and Hygiene ( WASH) needs well captured and budgeted for in the Assembly’s Medium-Term Plans.

HFFG through the Watershed (empowering citizens) program identified this knowledge gap and engaged key personnel within the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipal Assembly in diverse ways to enable citizens understand and participate in WASH decision processes to ensure no one is left behind.

Through interface meetings and focused group discussions, planning and budget officers from the Assembly empowered community members on how to prioritize their needs and how to effectively engage the Assembly on the Medium-Term Development Plan to get their needs factored in their plans.

Now community opinion leaders, Water and Sanitation Committees, women and young people including  persons with disabilities, have a clear understanding of when, where, how and which departments within the Assembly is responsible for planning and documentation of community WASH needs.

“I didn’t know my community WASH needs had to be channeled to the Assembly through the Urban Council during preparation of the Medium-Term Development Plan.  Now through the Watershed project, I know we have to send the request to the Assembly mainly directly or through the Assembly member,” said Nana Ibrahim, Chief of Mile 10.5.

 “If each plan of the Assembly is captured and budgeted for, it means all the request we send will not have budget in the Assembly’s books – Can these requests fulfilled? Well, I think that is why we sit and blame the Assembly for not minding us. Today we have gotten opportunity to understand the process, thanks to HFFG and partners for showing us the way,”  Mr. Mensah, a community member from  Israel also said.

The Watershed (empowering citizens) programme is a five year (2016 – September 2020) strategic partnership among IRC, Simavi, Wetlands, Akvo and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The project is expected to ensure improvement in the governance and management of Water Access, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) as well as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) services and strengthen the capacity of CSOs to lobby and advocate (L&A) government and other WASH duty-bearers for measurable improvements in the quality and sustainability of WASH services.

The project, being implemented in 15-communities in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipal Area has empowered 30 community members as WASH advocates with the responsibility to lobby local authorities to improve Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Water Resources Management

Through the project, about 63 boreholes in the Municipality have either been repaired or constructed to provide quality water to community members in the project implementation areas.