Ms Lydia Seyram Alhassan, Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, has emphasized the urgent need for stakeholders to work together to address the funding gap in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services sector. The lack of adequate funding, she said, had caused many ambitious plans in the sector to be unrealised. Stakeholders must, therefore, explore innovative financing mechanisms, strengthen public-private partnerships, and mobilize both domestic and international private sector funding to help bridge this funding gap, she said. Ms Alhassan, was speaking at the opening of the MOLE 35 Wash Conference at Ho, in the Volta Region. The four-day conference, which is being organized by the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS), is on the theme: 'Looking Back SDG Six Implementation in Ghana: Progress, Challenges and the Way Forward'. The Conference is expected to ignite renewed commitment in Ghana's WASH sector to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also seeks to catalyze bold and collective actions for sustainable and equitable WASH services delivery in the country. Ms Alhassan pointed out that effective service delivery in the WASH sector required robust policies, strategies and plans that must be coherent and mutually reinforcing to the current needs and sector aspirations. She said although appropriate strategic documents had been developed to guide the sector, the next critical issue was how Ghana could leverage on strengths to implement the strategies seamlessly. Amongst these documents are the Ghana WASH Sector Development Programme (2021-2030), the National Water Policy, National Solid Waste Management Strategy, Liquid Waste Management Strategy, Rural Sanitation Model and Strategy, the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area Sanitation Masterplan and the Hand Hygiene for All Strategy. Touching on the connection between access to water and climate change, Ms. Alhassan, said managing water and sanitation services and adapting to climate change would largely depend on how effectiv ely the country could implement the commitments made in the Compact as well as those in the other strategic documents earlier mentioned. She said the WASH sector had had its fair share of challenges along the way, but there were however, far more opportunities to make the next six years of SDGs implementation better. On climate change and gender inclusiveness, Ms Alhassan advocated that these should be integral in current discussions. This was because, as Ghana experienced erratic rainfall patterns, droughts and frequent floods, which posed serious threats to natural resources, particularly water bodies and infrastructure provided for water and sanitation, the most affected were women and children. 'We cannot fail the next generation, so we ought to redouble our efforts at tackling the myriads of challenges in the sector.' She commended the various stakeholders in the sector for their unwavering and invaluable support. Ms Alhassan used the occasion to reaffirm the Ministry's commitment to leading and su pporting the efforts of partners in achieving sustainable WASH services. Source: Ghana News Agency