Plan Ghana to assist 8 c'nities on water and sanitation

By William Yaw Owusu.

Thursday June 22, 2006
Plan Ghana, a child centered development organization has signed a memoranda of understanding with eight District Assemblies to help in the implementation of water and sanitation programs.

The Districts are Agona, Awutu Effutu Senya Asebu Kwamankese Gomoa and Mfanstiman districts in the central Region Manya Krobo District in the Eastern Region as well as Sissala East and West Districts in the Upper West Region.

Under the agreement, plan Ghana will provide both financial and technical assistance in the eight assemblies in the implementation of all water and sanitation activities.

Mr. Amadou Bocoum, country Director of plan Ghana at the signing of the agreement in Accra yesterday said “we are to agree on specific water and sanitation projects and share the cost accordingly”.

He said Plan was already involved in community development intervention in education, health, food, security and micro enterprises development saying, “These are all children, families and communities to meet their basic needs.

Mr. Bocoum said the MOU “is just a test case that we want to embark upon and we will soon follow it up with more development programs”.

He called for close collaboration with the assemblies to ensure that water and sanitation activities became an eye opener for other district to follow.

The chairman for the occasion and Upper West Regional Minister, Mr. Ambrose Derry whose region, Plan Ghana is active said “Plan has been a useful partner in the development of our region their effort is complete of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s).

He said the situation where non-governmental organizations and other development agencies “sneaked into areas, chose their location and began work without collaborating with the assemblies must cease,” saying that this sometimes leads to some communities getting more development projects while others are completely deprived.

He said ‘we need collaboration and not dependency’.

Mr. Philip Amanor Eastern Regional Director of Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) said Plan Ghana’s initiative ‘is a clear case of partnership and collaboration in development’.

The District Chief Executives who attended the signing ceremony took turns to recount the numerous projects embarked upon by Plan Ghana in their areas.

Mr. Solomon Salia, Sissala East DCE, for instance said since 2002, Plan Ghana, apart from providing for basic educational infrastructure had sponsored more students to teacher training institutions to support the district.