The United Nations 2012 Water Report has warned of significant risks of slippage on the gains made in extending Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services unless more attention is given to maintaining those services and assets.

The report acknowledges that despite the severe financial crisis faced by many high-income countries, aid for sanitation and drinking-water continues to rise, while targeting to basic Millennium Development Goals - type services is improving.

It shows that some countries were reporting good progress towards national Water, Sanitation and Water (WASH) targets, but highlights that for the majority of countries, human and financial resource constraints, especially for sanitation, are significantly impeding progress.

It says despite impressive global gains, most countries are falling short on meeting their own national WASH commitments, with 83% and 70% of countries reportedly falling significantly behind the trends required to meet their defined national access targets for sanitation and drinking-water, respectively.

UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation (GlAAS) and Drinking-Water: “The challenge of extending and sustaining services” report was made available to the Ghana News Agency on Friday. It is to monitor the inputs required to extend and sustain WASH systems and services.

This includes the components of the “enabling environment”: documenting government policy and institutional frameworks; the volume, sources and targeting of investment; the sufficiency of human resources; priorities and gaps with respect to external assistance; and the influence of these factors on performance.

The report says focus on enhancing accountability is increasingly strong and is a key component of the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) partnership to which many GlAAS respondents belong.

It says accountability is being further enhanced by the increased attention paid to the human right to Water and Sanitation since the recognition of this right by the UN.

The report describe the growing political will for WASH implementation among reporting countries and the increasing efforts of countries to be accountable and to plan and coordinate effectively.

Its key findings include the following: countries report recent, substantive political commitments to WASH, increasing funding allocations, increasing leadership and coordination among implementing agencies.

According to the report, majority of the countries have established transparent WASH service provision targets and has put in place supporting policies.

With the 2015 target date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) clearly on the horizon, this 2012 edition of the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GlAAS) contributes importantly to the implementation of the UN-Water strategy of delivering strong messages on water that help shape the post-2015 sustainable development landscape. Its publication is timely in the lead-up to the next key event in this process, the rio+20 United Nations conference on Sustainable Development.

In Ghana WASHCost is researching the life-cycle costs of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in rural and peri-urban areas.

The rationale is that WASH governance would improve at all levels, as decision makers and stakeholders analyse the costs of sustainable, equitable and efficient services and put their knowledge to use.

WASHCost is working in partnership with the Community Water and Sanitation Agency of Ghana, WaterAid, and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.