Ghana Loses $290 Million Yearly Over Poor Sanitation

Ghana loses about USD290 million because of her inability to make improved sanitation and hygiene services available to the population, according to the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank.

Mr Benjamin Arthur, Executive Secretary of Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS), who announced this at a media dialogue, therefore, expressed concern about the inadequate resource allocation in the 2015 National Budget to deal with the issue.

Mr Arthur said, “Approximately 19,000 people including 5,100 children under the age of five die each year of diarrhoea, nearly 90% of which is directly attributed to poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services.”

He added that “USD54 million is lost each year in accessing health services.”

He however indicated that “Faecal contamination of the environment is the root cause of an annual average of 1,800 cases of cholera affecting people.”

“It is estimated that the cost of WASH response to such outbreaks is about USD1.2 million every year.

“This by implication means the cholera outbreak in 2014 which affected about 20,000 people would cost the country about USD13.3 million, excluding other economic implications as cost relating to loss of productivity.