KEYNOTE ADDRESS READ ON BEHALF OF H.E. PRESIDENT J.E.A. MILLS DURING THE 3RD GWF

Mr. Chairman

Niimei, Naamei, Nananom,

Development Partners

Ministers of State

People working in the water and sanitation sector

Members of the Press

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all to the Third Ghana Water Forum under the theme “WATER AND SANITATION SERVICES DELIVERY IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING URBAN ENVIRONMENT”.  There is no doubt in my mind that this is a very appropriate theme looking at the huge challenges facing the urban sector.  I understand rural water and sanitation is not being neglected but the focus this year is on the urban sector since the rural sector has made and continue to make huge strides in delivering good water supply to the rural and small towns since the National Community Water and Sanitation Project was launched by government in 1994.  Urban water supply coverage has however stagnated in the same period with water rationing being the norm rather than the exception.  Indeed many urban dwellers under twenty years of age have never seen water flowing daily out of their taps!!  The situation with sanitation is even more appalling.

There is a saying that, “Water is Life”.  This saying lets us know the importance of water to our lives and to live as noble people.  To maximise the health benefits of improved water supply, there is the need to have appropriate toilet facilities in our homes.  The practice of handing washing with soap becomes an illusion when there is no water to use.  Good environmental sanitation has a huge impact on the health status of the good people of this country by reducing diarrhoeal diseases including cholera, worm infestations and various kinds of flu. 

Mr. Chairman, it is the wish of government to put in place all the necessary measures to ensure that all the good people of Ghana have access to good drinking water and adequate sanitation.  We have been told that the Millennium Development Goals require that we reach a target of 76% for water 53% for sanitation by the year 2015.  These figures are indeed laudable, but what kind of water will the good people of this country who do not have access be safe drinking be using and what kind of toilet facilities will the almost 50% of the country left be using?  We as a government are intent on doing what is best for the people of this country.  To this end government will spare no effort to ensure that we do better than the targets set for us by the year 2015.

Accordingly, we have this year launched the initiative to provide boreholes fitted with hand pumps to all our people in the remotest corners of this country.  We are also in the process of implementing the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) Compact which the Government of Ghana has committed itself.

On the issue of Urban Sanitation, I am urging all Metropolitan and Municipal Chief Executives to implement the relevant bye-laws to ensure all households have access to appropriate sanitation facilities in their houses.  I will also urge the various assemblies in the big cities especially Accra to come together and coordinate among themselves in accordance with the Local Government Act, Act 462 and the National Development Planning Systems Act, Act 480. All must understand that cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases do not know the political boundaries we have put in place.  Indeed, this year we had an unfortunate outbreak of cholera and almost 90% of the cases recorded were in Accra.

The issues facing urban water supply in the country are well known to all.  Currently the World Bank has given the country a grant of over hundred million dollars to implement the urban water project.  Construction works are currently ongoing in urban centres in six regions.  The Chinese are also supporting us to construct an additional treatment plant at Kpong to increase water supply to Accra by forty million gallons per day and which will supply water through a new pipeline to serve Adenta and surrounding areas.  The World Bank project is expected to end next year and the Chinese project is expected to end in two years.  With the completion of these projects and other projects the Government is embarking on, we will soon see a rapid improvement in delivery of water supply to our urban centres.

We are currently in the process of restructuring the urban water sector.  We believe we have the required expertise and knowledge in the country for the smooth and efficient running of urban water supply services.  The theme of this conference is focused on urban water issues.  It is my hope that your deliberations and outputs will enable us improve on the sector and to enhance government decision on how urban water supply services should be managed.

The Government of Ghana appreciates the role and contribution of various stakeholders including our development partners, civil society organizations and the private sector are playing in the provision of potable water to the good people of this country. We hope such commitments and contributions will continue to supplement government efforts in ensuring that National and MDG targets are exceeded.

Finally on behalf of the Government of Ghana and on my own behalf, I wish to thank each and every one of you, for your participation, in the Third Ghana Water Forum under the theme, “WATER AND SANITATION SERVICE DELIVERY IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING URBAN ENVIRONMENT”.

I am confident that outcomes from this forum will enable us to develop appropriate strategies and systems to ensure that urban water supply services are managed in a sustainable manner for the benefits of Ghana.  As we are all aware from the last census approximately 52% of Ghanaians now live in urban areas.

On this note, I declare the Third Ghana Water Forum duly opened.

WATER AND SANITATION SERVICES DELIVERY IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING :THEME ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR KWAMENA AHWOI, GIMPA, AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE 3RD GHANA WATER FORUM

Introduction

About twenty years ago, the urban population of Ghana was about 5.6 million or 36 percent of the total population. Today, it is about   12.2 million or 50 per cent. Clearly, systems that were designed to service a 5.6 million population will have to be modified to be able to service 12.2 million people. That represents the challenge of urban water and sanitation delivery in Ghana today.

Managing the Water and Sanitation Sector: The Problems

In those long ago days of centralized and state-controlled administration, water and sanitation services for the whole country was the legal responsibility of the Ghana Water and Sewage Cooperation (GWSC). This was understandable, because of the smallness of the population which therefore made the management of water and sanitation by a monopolistic para-statal logical response to the problem caused by the economies of scale. But those who are old enough will remember that this arrangement was wholly disadvantageous to the rural population, as the activities of the GWSC barely touched the rural communities.

It was the PAMSCAD (Programme of Actions to Mitigate the Social Costs of Adjustment and Development) of the late 1980s and the early 1990s that first alerted the country to the reality that the rural community was being shortchanged in the area of water provision by this arrangement and that it was possible for a dichotomized approach to water and sanitation services provision between urban and rural Ghana to be adopted. Thus the WATSAN projects of the PAMSCAD gave birth to the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) of today.

But the problem of water and sanitation provision has not been attributable to the monopoly of the GWSC only. The segmentation of the sector has represented another major problem. Whilst GWSC WATSAN, WASH CWSA and other acronyms all suggested that water, sanitation and hygiene belong to the same sector, they have unfortunately been bifurcated or trifurcated between the Works and Housing, Local Government and Health Ministries. It is therefore virtually impossible to deal with the sector without calling a meeting of all three sectors, and we all know that such meetings only spawn sub committees which also spawn their own meetings leading to the establishment of Expert Groups which also hold their own meetings ad infinitum. At the end of the day, the problem is left unsolved because one is not sure as to even who is to take the final decisions.

There is yet a third problem, a problem which I choose to describe as “settlement before planning”, a phenomenon which is best illustrated with a story, ‘Numoo’ Kwamena is a hunter who hunts in the peri-urban area of Accra in the Accra Plains somewhere in the Dangbe East District. Whilst hunting one day, he chases a rat far into the Plains, kills it, skins it, and because it is night, lights a fire and cooks it, eats it, and settles for the night. The next day, he invites his wife and children to join him to finish the rat meat. Because there is a stream nearby and the rats seem to be in abundance, ‘Numoo’ Kwamena never goes back and before you can say “Kwamena” Kwamenakope (or Kwamenakrom in Akan), a new village is born. Kwamenakope has not been planned for, and yet the settlement of Kwamekope has come into existence. Forget about the fact that it is an illegal settlement, but ‘Numo’ Kwamena and his descendants have votes and therefore come election time, politicians will go and promise them water and sanitation services. No service provider whether a monopoly, a duopoly or a ‘multi-poly’ can redeem this promise, especially if such a scenario is a regular occurrence in the spatial development sector of a country, which it is in Ghana.

All these problems point to one thing: water and sanitation are micro, localized needs which are very difficult to manage from distant, centralized locations. They point to the need to decentralize the water and sanitation sector in a way that they will be managed at the local level with the participation of the local people. They suggest that not even the bifurcation of the water and sanitation sector into urban and rural sectors will resolve the problem. They argue for a total decentralization of the water and sanitation sectors. The call for new arrangement for the provision of water and sanitation services and because of their sheer numbers, they argue especially for a new arrangement for urban water supply.

Managing the Water and Sanitation Sectors: The Questions

In responding to the identified challenges, a number of questions arise:

·         Should water, sanitation and environmental hygiene continue to belong to separate sectors or should they be clustered as a single sector issue to be handled by one sector Ministry?

·         Should the production, transmission and distribution of urban water be considered, as one activity to be undertaken by one agency or organization or can they be split between different agencies or organizations as has been done with electricity?

·         Is it possible to at least regionalize urban water supply if decentralizing it to the district level will not be defensible from the point of view of the economies of scale?

·         How can we get urban residents to be involved in the provision of water and sanitation services given the difficulty that is encountered in mobilizing especially the urban elite for any community activity whatsoever?

·         Is cost recovery a feasible option in the provision of urban water and sanitation services or are there alternative options that can provide these social and human needs?

I will share a few of my own thoughts on some of these difficult questions.

A Disparate or a Single Sector?

Water, sanitation and environmental hygiene are so closely related that they are best treated as a single sector. The common thread running through them is water. Lack of or too little of water causes the sanitation and environmental hygiene problems. Water is therefore the cause of the problem; the others are merely symptoms. It is therefore necessary to treat the cause by making the entire sector the responsibility of the agency responsible for water which to me would be the ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH). But that only means responsibility for water and sanitation policy. Responsibility for water provision should be decentralized to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) which will continue to be overseen by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD). Environmental hygiene training will continue to be the responsibility of the MOH, but that would not mean a transfer of the responsibility from environmental health back to the MOH. Environmental health is the decentralized responsibility of the MMDAs and it should remain as such.

Within the framework of these proposal, and consistent with my proposal elsewhere that local government should not continue to be a line Ministry, policy responsibility for water, sanitation and environmental health would be the responsibility MWRWH; training of environmental health personnel would be the responsibility of the MOH; but the provision of water and the implementation of sanitation and environmental health policies would be the decentralized responsibility of the MMDAs. After all, the Ghana Medical School which trains our doctors is under the Ministry of Education, but the doctors who are the products of the school are under the MOH.

Production, Transmission and Distribution of Urban Water

There seems to be an unquestioned assumption in Ghana that production, transmission and distribution of water should necessarily be undertaken by the same agency or organization. We used to think the same for electricity. But once we decided to allow Independent Power Producers (IPPs) into the sector, the VRA, GRIDCo and the ECG emerged as three distinct entities in charge of production, transmission and distribution of electricity respectively.

Similarly with urban water, because of the large cost and investment outlays, it is possible to have different agencies or organisations handling the different aspects of the water operation. In South Africa, for example, water is produced by one agency which sells it in bulk to the local authorities which are responsible for its distribution within the cities. This does not mean that the local authorities have to do the distribution by themselves by all means.

They can also contract out that responsibility to private companies under public -private partnership arrangements. Is private participation in any of these aspects of the water chain an option in Ghana and specifically is MMDA involvement in water distribution also an option in Ghana? This Forum must interrogate that possibility.

PPP in Urban Water Supply

Even if the water production-transmission-distribution chain will not be fragmented, it is still possible for a public private partnership system to be introduced into the urban water supply sector. Not only will this introduce a spirit of competitiveness into the urban water supply sector, it is also likely to introduce efficiency into the system. Currently, not only is there a lot of inefficiencies leading to a lot of leakages, but the inefficiencies have led to many customers boycotting GWCL water and relying on their own privately-provided bore-hole supply of water.

The most cursory of researches in Accra will reveal that for many middle and upper middle class families, GWCL water has become a supplement to private bore hole supplied water that they have dug in their homes rather than vice versa. For an initial investment of some GH¢10,000, one can have a permanent bore hole pumped water system installed for which there are no monthly or periodic payments. After installing the system in my house at East Legon some four years ago as a result of the irregular supply of water by the GWCL in the area, my monthly average GWCL metered water bill is less than GH¢5 from the previous over GH¢100 monthly bill that I was paying, and I am not alone in this. What that means is that we are tapping natural resource - underground water - for which we pay nothing, thereby depriving the GWCL of substantial revenue it would have been earning if it was more efficient and regular in supplying us water and we had been forced to rely on their water supply.

Other houses in the middle and upper middle class areas have one, two or more poly tanks. Once the GWCL taps flow, these polytanks are filled first and therefore the GWCL has to pump a lot more water than is needed since the polytanks serve as "water warehouses" for as long as the taps keep flowing during the short period that they flow.

I am sure that a private independent contractor would have spotted this weakness in the urban water supply chain long ago and even if he or she could not supply us with water regularly, would have gotten into the borehole drilling business and possibly found a way of ensuring that we pay some periodic fee for what is after all a Ghanaian natural resource - underground water- which we are currently tapping for free.

The interesting thing is that the GH¢10,000 that was used as the initial investment in the bore hole system spread over time, that is, divided by the GH¢100 monthly payment that used to be made to the GWCL , would equal GH¢100 months. In other words, the house owner would have made an 8-year upfront payment to the private contractor which he does not realize because he or she is not making the payment monthly or periodically.

Regionalization of Urban Water Supply

Another option for the management of urban water is to "regionalize" the system. This does not mean that urban water supply systems should be operated or managed by the Regional Coordinating Council or from the regional capital. What is meant is that regional water management systems could be clustered around the production locations and managed by separate bodies. That could be another way of breaking the monopoly of the GWCL over urban water supply, one of the critical issues at the heart of the problem of urban water in Ghana.

Water- A Natural Right

Those options that I am asking this forum to consider are not meant to indicate support for the commercialization of water in a way that will make it unaffordable. After all, if there is one commodity to which humans must be considered entitled as a matter of natural right after the air that we breathe, it is water. Everybody needs water, and that includes criminals, prisoners, beggars, lunatics, destitute and indigents, meaning outlaws, the confined, the excluded, the marginalized and the disadvantaged. Any option for urban water supply must therefore include a safety net to cater for these categories of homo sapiens.

It is in that context that the issue of a "Water Fund" becomes most relevant. As a country, we have set up funds for all kinds of purposes which are not vital for human existence and survival. We have a GETFund, but we can exist and survive without education, even though at the great cost of ignorance. We have a Road Fund, but we can exist and survive without roads and indeed without travelling. But can we exist and survive without water? The answer to this question simply tells us what a "Water fund" to take care of those who cannot afford to pay for water at any cost is a sine qua non to any urban water supply system that we may decide upon.

Urban Sanitation: A Neglected Sub Sector

I have said very little about urban sanitation because the recently launched Environmental Sanitation Policy of September 2010 addresses many of the problems of the sub sector. But until the National Environmental Sanitation Policy of 1999 was launched by the second Government of the Fourth Republic; sanitation was largely a neglected sub sector in the Central Government's scheme of things. Yet we are aware of the insalubrious conditions of our urban environment that seriously affects the underground water system, creates a health hazard and increases the cost of health.

This is not a call for a centralization of the sanitation sub sector. It is a call for the channeling of more Central Government resources to the sanitation sub sector through the Metropolitan/Municipal Assembly function in Ghana, so the expertise or functionaries to deal with the function of sanitation resides in the Metropolitan/Municipal Assemblies. What is left is for the funds to be made available to the functionaries at the Metropolitan/Municipal level so that the function of sanitation can be effectively performed at that level. It is a classical case of the application of the fiscal decentralization principle of “the finances follow the functions.”

Conclusion

I would like to conclude by summarizing the thoughts that I have tried to share with you in this address. I have made the following points:

·         Ghana's rapidly changing urban population means that we cannot continue to use systems that were designed to provide water and sanitation services to an urban population that was half the number of today’s population at the time they were designed;

·         The major problems of urban water supply and sanitation services include the fact that the two sectors, together with environmental hygiene, are not holistically managed and controlled, the monopolistic control of urban water supply by the GWCL; and the phenomenon of "settlement before planning" which makes it difficult, if not impossible for water providers to plan for future water and sanitation needs;

·         The need to decentralize the water and sanitation sector in such a way that it will be managed at the local level with the participation of the people.

·         A proposal for the production, transmission and distribution of water to be done by different bodies or organizations

·         Consequently, the novelty of independent water producers (IWPs) as an idea whose time has come;

·         The possibility of "regionalizing" urban water supply and management by clustering urban settlements around the water production and treatment sources;

·         The introduction of a PPP system in the water sector to allow for competition and efficiency;

·         Considering water as a "natural right" and therefore ensuring that whatever option is chosen includes a "safety net" to cater for the outlaw, the confined, the marginalized, the disadvantaged, the excluded, the shunned and all other classes of persons who cannot afford to pay for water. My preference is for a "water Fund" along the lines of the GETFund and the Road Fund.

·         The fiscal decentralization principle of "the finances follow the functions" must be applied in the sanitation sub sector so that enough resources are made available to the Metropolitan/Municipal Assemblies to deal with the issues of urban sanitation and environmental health.

I thank you very much for your attention.  

Communique- Ministerial & Dev. Partners Roundtable of the Ghana Water Forum-III

Ghana Water Forum

Ministerial & Development Partners Roundtable (M&DPR)

Background

The third Ghana Water Forum was held in Accra from the 5^th – 7^th September 2011, under the theme ““Water and Sanitation Services Delivery in a Rapidly Changing Urban Environment”. The theme is informed by the rapid rate of urbanization in Ghana, expected to increase with the discovery and exploitation of oil and gas, against a backdrop of a challenging environment for WASH services delivery to meet the pace of urbanization. The forum focused on four thematic areas, namely:

·         Urbanisation and Development of Sustainable Water and Sanitation Services

·         Peri-urban and Community Water Supply

·         Sanitation

·         Institutional Issues and Creation of Enabling Environment

Conclusions of the Ministerial and Development Partners Round Table

The following represents the major conclusions of the Ministerial and Development Partners Round Table, which are expected to be pursued in the coming year, and progress to be reported on during the Round Table Meeting to be organised in 2012.

Progress in the WASH Sector

The meeting acknowledged some achievement in the WASH sector between 2010 and 2011. However, much of this achievement was mainly in the area of policy and strategy development, with only marginal improvement in access to services. Urban water coverage increased from 59% to 62% whilst rural water coverage increased from 59% to 61%. Sanitation coverage remains unchanged at 18% for urban areas and 7% for rural areas. The Government has invested significantly just as most development partners including the private sector. This calls for drastic action and doubling of efforts. The main constraint to achieving service delivery was finance.

Urban Water

For the purpose of this statement, it is understood that the term “urban” is used within the national development context which includes all communities with populations of 5,000 and above. This means that “Urban Water” in this context is not limited to only GWCL supply, but also includes the Small Towns Water Supply Schemes under the Jurisdiction of CWSA, involving towns of 5,000 – 50,000 population. Water security challenges were noted however, there is ongoing reform in the urban sub-sector which will culminate in a stronger and more results-oriented arrangement to provide expected steer to the sub-sector.

Recommendations on Urgent Actions:

• Given the fast pace of urbanization, and the need to meet the growing demand for water for consumption, industry and commerce, the meeting called for more drastic reforms in urban water delivery currently under the Jurisdiction of GWCL. Reform options for consideration may include efforts to break the monopoly of GWCL such as “Regionalisation”, separating the roles of Water production and Distribution or complete decentralisation up to municipal levels.

• A more concrete role for communities in the management and delivery of urban water within the GWCL supply areas can substantially improve governance and increase access to Water and Sanitation Services, especially to poor and peri-urban areas.

Peri-urban and Community Water Supply

Recommendation on Urgent Action:

• A deliberate strategy/approach for Peri-urban and Pro-poor service delivery is required to address the unique characteristics of peri-urban and low income areas. While the approach should ensure a lead role for Local governments with clear logistical support from Government; a measure of responsibility needs to be identified for communities in the delivery of services.

Sanitation

Whereas CLTS has a great potential for improving sanitation coverage in rural areas, this strategy is less effective in urban setting. Recognizing that improvement in rural sanitation alone is not sufficient to achieve Ghana’s MDG targets for Sanitation, bolder and stricter measures must be explored to tackle urban sanitation. Measures currently pursued by the Ministry of Local Government were identified in policy development and ensuring implementation frameworks are in place to accelerate action on sanitation service delivery.

Recommendations on Urgent Actions:

• In line with priorities for Sanitation identified by MDG Accelerated Framework (MAF), the Ministry of Finance should fulfill Government’s part of the commitments of the Ghana Compact  in the 2012 budget, and subsequent budgets up to 2015
• The meeting also calls on Cabinet to approve the Strategic Environmental Sanitation Investment Plan (SESIP) as a matter of urgency towards financing priority actions on Sanitation
• Development Partners and Government should further meet to explore additional funding mechanisms to address the priorities of MAF.
• Budgetary allocations for sanitation is dwindling hence the call for Ministry of Finance and economic Planning to urgently consider increasing funding to this sub-sector. A cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder approach is required to deliver on the sanitation targets – or at least bring the country back on track to achieving the sanitation targets.

Institutional Issues and Creation of Enabling Environment

Impressive strides have been made in creating and enabling environment for accelerating sector progress. Strategic frameworks are in place to ensure aid effectiveness, Strategic Sector Development Plan, SWAp, MDG Accelerated Framework; commitment and progress on SWA Compact, among others. However, there are disparities in access (inequities); cost-related challenges with especially high negative impact on the urban poor who pay more. In addition, urban sanitation, coordination across sectors and timely budget releases remain a challenge.

Recommendations on Urgent Actions:

·         Capacity of the two lead Ministries to be strengthened to deliver sector commitments. For the two Directorates, this is even more urgent in the short term and a long term well-tailored capacity strengthening programme should be developed;

·         Effective public oversight for implementation of MDG targets is critical hence the urgency required to confirm appointments of GWCL as has been done for  CWSA, and WRC

·         Strengthen regulatory bodies to be able to hold service providers to account;

·         A comprehensive plan needs to be developed with clear budget lines for implementing the Ghana SWA compact which represents a worthwhile example to other countries. Demonstration of commitment in budgetary allocations – current and in the future, will re-deepen confidence of citizens in relevant Government Ministries.

·         With the SSDP almost finalised, and having moved towards the end of the road map for the implementation of SWAp, it is essential for the scope and core deliverables to be clarified in order to enhance implementation. Key areas to be considered should include urban sanitation while recognizing institutional mandates for operationalising the plans.

·         Further discussions should be held between the Ministry of Water resources, Works and Housing, Development Partners and the Ministry of Finance to discuss realistic financing modalities.

·         The Water Directorate and the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate that are expected to coordinate the implementation of SWAp need strengthening to be able to deliver upon their mandate. Donor projects and funding aligned with SWAp arrangement will have tremendous impact in the sector. Of particular concern is the continued use of project staff in the Water Directorate and the slow progress towards mainstreaming them within the civil service.

·         A detailed and comprehensive analysis of the 2011 budget should be carried out before the end of the year to establish the extent of achievement (incl Government’s contribution) with regard to the fulfillment of the Ghana Compact. This will not only inform the Ministry of Finance on budgetary allocations for the WASH sector during 2012, but will also be shared with the international community, given the high level of interest and enthusiasm in the Ghana Compact within the International Community.

·         It is critical for a sector re-think and consideration for the creation of two Ministries – One responsible for Water and the other, responsible for Urban and Housing Planning. Rationale is to both give visibility to the sector and improve focused-planning and implementation of commitments re: basic urban sanitation.

Cross-cutting Issues:

1. SWA Compact: Unpacking the $350million commitment in the compact to determine what it should cover and who is expected to contribute to this. (Clarity: GoG, DP, Private Sector). Common understanding to be achieved. In addition, there is a deficit in Ministerial level understanding on their roles. On budgeting, there is need for an interface between the lead sector Ministries and Ministry of Finance. Ministerial level responsiveness to Compact discussions and common ownership is essential.
2. SSDP and SWAp: Need to bring the plans together under a comprehensive Document – National Water and Sanitation Strategic Development Plan (NWSSDP);
3. Capacity building: Ongoing efforts include strengthening of key institutions such as Schools of Hygiene, skills development of key staff of MLGRD to complement sector efforts.
4. MDF Accelerated Framework: Finalization and further consultation on the MAF
5. Decentralisation: Support to the decentralisation process will have enormous benefits: Need to focus on LG level capacity building
6. Response to Water Security Challenges: In view of Water security challenges, water resource development is essential. Innovative approaches such as RWH will be useful incl. role of decentralized structures, and ensuring new buildings have RWH systems attached (building codes).
7. Gender: Gender issues mainstreamed in planning and programming for services at sectoral and decentralized levels; practical involvement of voices of marginalized or vulnerable groups in decision making.

Break the monopoly of Ghana Water Company

Stakeholders of the just ended Ghana Water Forum have overwhelmingly called on government to break the monopoly of the Ghana Water Company Limited for the sake of efficiency.

Participants from different sessions during the conference made separate calls, which were all read during the closing ceremony on 7th September 2011, thereby forcing the call into the main conference communiqué.

From the Ministerial and Development Partners Roundtable, one of the side events with very high level participation, comprising Ministers and/or high profile officials from the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, as well as top officials from Ghana’s Development partners including the World Bank, UNICEF, the European Union, CIDA, DANIDA, IRC, Embassies and several international NGOs and Civil Society Representatives, a statement was issued as follows;

“Given the fast pace of urbanization, and the need to meet the growing demand for water for consumption, industry and commerce, the meeting called for more drastic reforms in urban water delivery currently under the jurisdiction of GWCL. Reform options for consideration may include efforts to break the monopoly of GWCL such as “Regionalization,” separating the roles of Water Production and Distribution or complete decentralization up to municipal levels. A more concrete role for communities in the management and delivery of urban water within the GWCL supply areas can substantially improve governance and increase access to Water and Sanitation Services, especially to poor and peri-urban areas.”

The Business Roundtable, whose participation include private businesses led by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and officials from the key water sector ministries also called for similar reforms through defining the role of private sector in urban water management such as revenue mobilization and building efficiency in their end of session statement.

The session on Governance, where the Ag Managing Director of the GWCL, the former Director of Water at the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, and other top officials from the Ghana Water Company made presentations on urban water supply management options, also came up with a similar recommendation – de-monopolize the Ghana Water Company - and it was captured in their end of session statement as follows, “break the GWCL monopoly and introduce service or supply area based concepts.”

Following these separate calls coming from different sessions of the forum, the call was finally and inevitably captured by the conference communiqué, “As a way forward for urban water services, management of urban water supply services should be decentralized to enhance efficiency. The separation of the key functions of production, transmission and distribution to be handled by different entities could also be considered.”

Urban water supply in Ghana has already gone through several reforms dating back to the pre-independence era. The first public water supply system in Ghana, then Gold Coast, was established in Accra just before World War I.  Extensions were made exclusively to other urban areas among them the colonial capital of Cape Coast, Winneba and Kumasi in the1920s.

During this period, the water supply systems were managed by the Hydraulic Division of Public Works Department. With time the responsibilities of the Hydraulic Division were widened to include planning and development of water supply systems in other parts of the country.

In 1948, the Department of Rural Water Development was established to engage in the development and management of rural water supply through the drilling of boreholes and construction of wells for rural communities.

The Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation (GWSC), was established in 1965 under an Act of Parliament (Act 310) as a legal public utility entity.  GWSC was responsible for water supply and sanitation in rural as well as urban areas and the conduct of research on water and sewerage as well as the making of engineering surveys and plans. The Corporation was also responsible for the construction and operation of water and sewerage works, and the setting of standards and tariffs and collection of revenues.

Documentation by the GWCL indicates that by the late 1980s and early 1990s, 33% of the water supply systems had deteriorated greatly or completely broken down due to inadequate funding to carry out maintenance and rehabilitation. A World Bank report in 1998 states that: “The water supply systems in Ghana deteriorated rapidly during the economic crises of the 1970s and early 1980s when Government’s ability to adequately operate and maintain essential services was severely constrained.”

Though some gains were made in interventions by the World Bank and other External Support Agencies from 1971 to 1988, their general impact on service delivery was very disappointing.  Due to this several efforts were made to improve efficiency within the water supply sector in Ghana especially during the era of the Economic Recovery Programme from 1983 to 1993. During this period, loans and grants were sought from donors, user fees were increased,  for the initiation of rehabilitation and expansion programmes, to train personnel and to buy transport and maintenance equipment etc.

In 1987, a “Five-Year Rehabilitation and Development Plan” for the sector was prepared which resulted in the launching of the Water Sector Restructuring Project (WSRP).  The reforms were aimed at reducing unaccounted for water, introducing rationalization through reduction of the workforce, hiring of professionals and training of the remaining staff. A strong focus in the WSRP was also to improve management and increase efficiency through organizational change in the water sector.

Accordingly, a number of organizational reforms within the Ghanaian water sector were initiated in the early 1990s. As a first step, responsibilities for sanitation and small towns water supply were decentralized from Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation to the District Assemblies in 1993.

The Water Resources Commission (WRC) was founded in 1996 to be in charge of overall regulation and management of water resources utilization.  In 1997, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) came into being with the purpose of setting tariffs and quality standards for the operation of public utilities.

With the passage of Act 564 of 1998, the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) was established to be responsible for management of rural water supply systems, hygiene education and provision of sanitary facilities.  After the establishment of CWSA, 120 water supply systems serving small towns and rural communities were transferred from the GWSC to the District Assemblies and Communities to manage under the community-ownership and management scheme.

Finally, in July 1999, GWSC was converted into a 100% state owned limited liability, Ghana Water Company Limited, with the responsibility for urban water supply only.

After heated public debates especially from 2002 on management options for urban water supply, a five-year Management Contract Agreement was finally signed with Aqua Vitens Rand Limited in 2006. However, at the expiry of the contract in June 2011, an assessment indicated a massive failure of the management contract option forcing the government not to renew it. This has thrown the nation into a search for a better management option for urban water supply again.

Rapid urban population growth has been cited as one of the major factors contributing to the perennial failure of the urban water supply utility to satisfy Ghanaians. In 1990 for instance, Ghana’s urban population was estimated at 36% representing just about 5.6m people in absolute terms. Preliminary report from the 2010 census indicates about 51% of the population, more than 12m people in absolute terms, live in urban areas.

This trend of growth has created several other challenges such as development of several slum and unplanned communities, emergence of peri-urban communities hitherto classified under rural communities, increasing demand of water for industrial and commercial use among several other challenges. Investment in the urban water supply sector has not been adequate enough to match all these challenges associated with urban water supply.

At the 3rd Ghana Water Forum, therefore, an opportunity was created for stakeholders to engage water sector policy-makers, through presentations and plenary discussions and the overwhelming outcome was these calls to break up the GWCL and identify options such as creating companies along production limes, transmission lines and supply lines. Others also suggested creating regional or even municipal level companies or supply area based companies whichever is more adequate to help meet the urban water supply challenge.

By Emmanuel Addai (Water and Sanitation Monitoring Platform)

CONFERENCE COMMUNIQUE : Ghana Water Forum-III

MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES, WORKS AND HOUSING

THIRD GHANA WATER FORUM

5th -7th September, 2011

CONFERENCE COMMUNIQUE

Preamble and Overview

The Third Ghana Water Forum was organised by the Water Directorate of the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing from 5^th – 7^th September 2011.  The forum focused on issues of water and sanitation in urban areas in Ghana and was under the theme: “Water and Sanitation Services Delivery in a Rapidly Changing Urban Environment”.

The forum brought together participants from government institutions, the private sector, NGOs, Development Partners, Academia, District Assemblies and international organisations who are into water and sanitation.   

Three side events were organised as part of the forum, and each side event has a separate communiqué.  The side events were:

·         Ministerial and Development Partners Roundtable (M&DPR):

·         Business Roundtable:

·         Ghana Youth and Children’s Forum (GYCF): 

Dr. Iyabode Olusanmi spoke on behalf of the Development Partners.  She recapped progress made by the sector in the last year and gave three specific issues on Ghana’s rapidly growing cities as follows:

• The proposed establishment of the Ghana Urban Water Company and commended the Government on the setting up of a Transitional Steering Committee to guide the process;
• The continued extremely poor state of Ghana’s urban sanitation flies in the face of the middle income status of the country; and
• Peri-urban fringes are fast growing and can be overlooked under the current institutional arrangements.

The keynote address at the Opening of the Conference was delivered by the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Hon. A. S. K. Bagbin, on behalf of His Excellency the President.  He reiterated the commitment of government to work to achieve the MDGs and even go beyond the MDG target of 76% and reach the national target of 85% for water by 2015.  He emphasised the commitment of government to the SWA compact and the government strategy of providing 20,000 boreholes to rural communities.  He also urged assemblies in big cities to coordinate among themselves in accordance with the relevant laws to achieve urban goals in water and sanitation.

The theme address was delivered by Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi of GIMPA.  He made key suggestions and recommendations which include the following:

• Ghana’s rapidly increasing urban population means we cannot continue to use of old systems for the provision of water and sanitation which have been largely ineffective;
• Water sanitation and environmental hygiene should be holistically managed and controlled together;
• The need to decentralise the water and sanitation sector in such a way that it will be managed at the appropriate local level with the participation of the people;
• The possibility of production, transmission and distribution of water being done by different bodies or organisations as well as introducing the novelty of Independent Water Producers;
• The possibility of ‘regionalising’ urban water supply and management by clustering urban settlements around the water production and treatment sources;
• Water should be considered a ‘natural right’ and ensure that any options should have a ‘safety net’ to cater for the marginalised. A water fund should be set up to serve this safety net among others.
• The fiscal decentralisation principle of ‘the finances follows the functions’ must be applied in the sanitation sub-sector.

Statements

After three days of deliberations and discussions, participants came up with the following conclusions on urban water and sanitation services delivery:

1.      A National Water Fund should be set up for Monitoring and Evaluation as well as for capital expenditure in the sector and also to serve as a safety net for the poor and marginalized.

2.      There should be a paradigm shift from waste disposal to waste reuse for wealth generation and the creation of an enabling environment for investments in waste reuse.

3.      The Sector Strategic Development Plan (SSDP) should be well disseminated after its finalization through an effective communication strategy.

4.      As a way forward for urban water services, management of urban water supply services should be decentralized to enhance efficiency. The separation of the key functions of production, transmission and distribution to be handled by different entities could also be considered.

5. The concept of Independent Water Producers (IWPs) should be considered in the new scheme of things for the sector, and the Private Sector should be involved in these processes.
6. Self supply of water facilities should be recognized and mainstreamed into service delivery options to accelerate coverage and promote sustainability.
7. Guidelines should be developed to define a clear role for the private sector in the management of urban water services.
8. Partnerships for collaboration between the private sector and the public sector and also among private sector players should be strengthened.
9. The sector should identify and implement a uniform monitoring and evaluation system as a matter of urgency.
10. Funding for Post-Construction support for small towns should be provided.
11. Clear cut funding should be targeted for sector stakeholders to enable households provide their own sanitation. Local authorities should also carry out their mandate to ensure building codes are enforced with respect to provision of toilet facilities.
12. Sanitation technologies which have resource recovery mechanisms especially for agriculture and energy should be adopted and implemented.
13. Rainwater harvesting should be encouraged in the construction of new buildings with an incentive scheme.
14. Extensive surveillance and stringent measures should be put in place to monitor surface water, ground water and drinking water quality nationwide.
15. National frameworks should be developed to guide Public Private Partnerships as well as Community-Utility Partnerships.
16. A mechanism to encourage and utilize knowledge generated within the sector should be created to minimize waste of resources and improve efficiency.

Conclusion

The conference therefore concluded that water, sanitation and hygiene services in general should be integrated. Sector stakeholders and institutions including the private sector should play their defined and interlinked roles. Decentralised institutions should also be strengthened and the necessary resources made available for them to undertake their roles effectively.

Accra, Ghana, September 7, 2011

"Water and Sanitation Services Delivery in a Rapidly Changing Urban Environment"