The Department of Water and Sanitation is one of the seven departments in the School of Physical Sciences. The creation of the department was approved by the Academic Board in September 2018 and became operational at the beginning of the 2019/2020 academic year in August 2019. The Department was carved out of the Department of Chemistry where it previously existed as the Water and Sanitation Unit (WSU). The establishment of the Department was one of the main deliverables of the Netherlands Initiative for Capacity development in Higher Education (NICHE) Project GHA 194-204, which was funded by NUFFIC, the Dutch Agency for International Development. The journey to the establishment of the Department began in 2004 when the University of Cape Coast took the lead as the first institution in Ghana to introduce an undergraduate programme in the area of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). The first batch of students graduated in 2007. The B.Sc. Water and Sanitation programme was placed under the Department of Chemistry for nurturing and capacity building into an independent department. A team of civil and environmental engineers and scientists were employed into the Department of Chemistry to constitute the WSU, which was responsible for running the programme. The programme employs a combination of natural, engineering and social sciences to produce multidisciplinary graduates who can play versatile roles in the WASH sector. Through active linkages and collaborations with industry partners, particularly the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the WSU became a key stakeholder in the development of human resource for Ghana’s WASH sector. The WSU led the University of Cape Coast to mount sandwich diploma and bachelor’s programmes for the academic progression of Environmental Health Assistants and Officers (EHAs/EHOs). The Unit was also involved in the running of short courses for environmental health and sanitation staff under the Local Service Delivery and Governance Programme funded by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) in 2010 as well as the Ghana Netherlands WASH Programme funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands through the Berenschot International Ghana Branch in 2015. The impact of the activities of the WSU on the WASH sector played a key role in attracting the NUFFIC/NICHE grant from the Netherlands Government to establish the Department.
