Works Minister: Women must lead water governance
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Ghana’s water governance conversation took a deliberate turn towards inclusion on World Water Day, as Works, Housing and Water Resources Minister Kenneth Gilbert Adjei made a pointed case that sustainable water management cannot succeed without placing women, long the invisible backbone of water use and conservation at the household level, at the centre of policy and decision-making.
Addressing the World Water Day commemoration, Adjei moved beyond the conventional narrative of women as water fetchers, reframing them explicitly as managers, protectors, and legitimate decision-makers whose lived experience must actively shape how Ghana designs and delivers its water systems.
“Women are not only users of water; they are also managers, protectors, and decision-makers in households and communities. Their voices, experiences, and leadership are therefore essential in shaping effective water policies and services,” he stated.
The Minister pointed to a network of institutions, the Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources, the Community Water and Sanitation Agency, Ghana Water Limited, and the Water Resources Commission, as the collaborative architecture through which the government is working to improve water service delivery nationwide. Priority areas, he said, include rural water supply, small-town water systems, and the rehabilitation of ageing urban infrastructure, with an explicit commitment that no community is left behind in the process.
But Adjei was equally candid about the scale of what Ghana is up against. Rapid urbanization, population growth, climate variability, pollution, and unsustainable land-use practices are collectively placing the country’s water resources under mounting stress, challenges that government action alone, he stressed, cannot resolve.
“These challenges require not only government action but collective responsibility,” he said, extending a direct call to traditional authorities, civil society, development partners, the private sector, and communities themselves to become active participants in protecting water resources and ensuring equitable access across the country.
The Minister’s World Water Day message, at its core, was a reframing of water governance as a shared national enterprise, one where the women who have always carried the greatest burden of water insecurity must also carry the greatest weight in crafting the solutions.
Source: myjoyonline
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