March 22 every year is designated World Water Day, a day dedicated to celebrate achievements in the water sector as well as efforts to resolve challenges of water shortage around the world.Regrettably, there seems to be less to celebrate especially in Africa, Ibrahim Musah, Head of Policy and Partnership at the water advocacy group, Water Aid said on Multi TV’s current affairs show pm: EXPRESS.According to Ibrahim Musah “there is little to celebrate when it comes to World Water Day because of the challenges. We were able to observe the day with 1000 children from different cluster of schools. The children represented these challenges on paper to show how bad water crisis was in the country.”Perhaps a little bit of history will be enough for a deeper appreciation of the task.Back in 1993 when the United Nations General Assembly designated March 22 as World Day for Water, statistics then were grim. Nineteen years later, little seems to have changed.In several cities and towns in Ghana, water shortage is a common feature. Many of the water bodies have either been polluted or taken over for housing projects.Statistics indicate that each of us drinks between 2 to 4 litters of water every day though most of it is embedded in the food we eat which perhaps explains the theme for the 2012 commemoration of the day, "Water and Food Security."The UN estimates that more than one in six people worldwide lack access to 20-50 liters (5-13 gallons) of safe freshwater daily to ensure their basic needs for drinking, cooking, and cleaning are met. And as the world's population grows beyond 7 billion, clean water is increasingly becoming scarce in densely populated areas as well as in remote villages.The Country Director of International Water and Sanitation Centre, Vida Duti, told Multi TV’s pm: EXPRESS host, Esi Arhin the focus is on community water and sanitation.According to the Water and Sanitation Monitoring Platform of the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Ghana has about 20% open defecation which contaminates water bodies.In implementing the policies put in place, Ibrahim Musah said, “as an organization in Water Aid, some of the approaches in solving some of the challenges are at different levels, some of them manifest itself in policies”.We have the National Water Policy which finalizes Strategies Sector Development Plan for water to reflect Ghana’s shared growth on development agenda.But the importance to solving urban water problem is the political will and the release of financial resources to critical sector agencies like Ghana Water Company, Community Water and Sanitation Agencies and Water Resources Commission to ensure that those policies are implemented.