10% Sanitation Fund under DACF not enough – Parliamentary Committee

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Sanitation and Water Resources has criticized the 10 percent allocation from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) for sanitation, stating it is insufficient to tackle the nation's sanitation issues. The Committee praised the use of the allocation by several assemblies in the Volta and Oti regions for projects like institutional toilets, boreholes, drainage works, desilting, and more.

This assessment was part of their second-phase accountability engagement with Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to evaluate how the statutory allocation is accessed, utilized, the interventions undertaken and the challenges faced during implementation. On September 18 and 19, the Committee engaged 18 MMDAs in the Volta Region and received presentations from nine districts in the Oti Region regarding their 2025 and 2026 DACF allocations, interventions, and challenges.

Member of Parliament for Salaga South and Committee member, Ibrahimah Mohammed Zuwera, shared that the presentations showed practical interventions in local communities through investments in institutional toilets, boreholes, desilting, drainage works, and other sanitation-related activities in the two regions. She emphasized the need for a dedicated and sustainable sanitation financing mechanism, given the achievements through the current allocation.

However, the Committee raised concerns about the presentation from the Nkwanta North District Assembly, requesting it to appear again in Accra to clarify issues identified during the assessment. The Committee also sought to verify the actual status of DACF releases, urging assemblies not to blame implementation issues on non-release of funds when allocations had already been transferred.

Ms Zuwera stressed that public funds are not for personal use and the Committee would continue urging MMDAs to translate public resources into tangible benefits for residents.