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Parliament on Wednesday approved a $48.85 million agreement between the government and the African Development Fund to finance the Greater Accra Sustainable Sanitation and Livelihood Improvement Project (GASSLIP).

The agreement is a concessionary one with a concessionary component of 35.97 per cent, which is slightly above the government concessionary requirement of 35 per cent.
 
The project is to support government's effort to increase access to adequate, safe and affordable water, improved environmental sanitation and hygiene education.

The aim is to ensure a favourable state of health of the general population.

The approval of the agreement followed the presentation of the report of the Joint Committee on Finance and Works and Housing, which recommended its approval.

Committee's report

The committee's report, jointly signed by the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, and the Chairman of the Works and Housing Committee, Nana Amoako, said the project was part of the intervention by the government to expand and build on the success of the previous African Development Bank-funded Accra Sewerage Improvement Project (ASIP) and the ongoing Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) Sanitation and Water Project.

The projects are to manage climate resilient sanitation services within GAMA, in response to overwhelming sanitation challenges.

The report said the rationale of GASSLIP fit into the water and sanitation vision for sustainable water and basic sanitation for all by 2025.

"The project outcome further emphasises the enhancement of improved sanitary, environmental and social conditions through the desire to eliminate cholera outbreak which in recent years have become nearly endemic in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area", it said.

The report said based on the project's income generating activities, it would also impact positively on the living conditions of the low income within the densely populated urban areas.

Targets

The report said the GASSLIP aimed to improve the sanitation target, which was only 15 per cent in the rural areas and 20 per cent in urban areas, to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target of 40 per cent.

That, it said, would move the country out of its current position as one of the lowest sanitation covered countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.