POSITION PAPER
WATER AND WATER -RELATED SANITATION SECTOR
GHANA IN FOCUS
 |
| Water and Sanitation sector overview in Ghana |
INTRODUCTION
The water sector of Ghana is
defined to include the following sub sectors:
- Urban water delivery including water supply
service in peri urban communities;
- Rural and small towns water delivery;
- Basic sanitation and hygiene in rural areas;
and
- Water resources management
This
position paper deals with the above defined within the context of
the National Water Policy (2007), Ghana Water Vision 2025, and the Water Sector
Strategic Development Plan 2012- 2025. It sets out the current
state and challenges specific to the sub-sectors, the issues general to the
sector that also need to be addressed, and the strategies in the planning, development and management of the nation’s water
resources and in the delivery of sustainable water supply and water related
sanitation services.
The ultimate goal is to realize the vision of the water
sector “sustainable water and basic sanitation for all by 2025”, which
means ensuring that “all people living in Ghana have access to adequate, safe,
affordable and reliable water service, practise safe sanitation and hygiene and
that water resources are sustainably managed”.
INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
Ghana’s institutional framework for the
water sector is quite well structured.
- The Ministry of Water Resources Works and Housing (MWRWH)
through its Water Directorate is responsible for providing leadership for sector
activities in policy development, implementation, coordination, monitoring and
evaluation.
- Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) facilitate water
supply and sanitation delivery for rural communities and small towns.
-
Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) undertakes urban water
supply.
- Water Resources Commission (WRC) oversees water resources regulation
and management.
-
Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) provides
pricing regulation for urban water supply.
- The Ministry of Local
Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) through its Environmental Health and Sanitation
Directorate (EHSD) coordinates environmental sanitation,
while the School Health Education Program (SHEP) under the Ghana Education
Service coordinates water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in schools.
- The
Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) is an umbrella organisation
to ensure harmony in the activities of Civil Society Organisations and to align
their operations within the sector. In addition to harmonisation and alignment,
CONIWAS serves as a general advocacy organisation for its members to promote
dialogue between sector CSOs, government and other stakeholders.
CURRENT STATUS AND CHALLENGES OF THE WATER SECTOR
Urban and Peri-Urban Water
Service Delivery
The
provider-based data from the Ghana Water Company Ltd (GWCL) indicates that
urban water coverage was 58% percent for 2008 and 62.9% by 2012. About twenty years ago, the urban population of Ghana was
about 5.6 million or 36 percent of the total population, but per the
2010 population census it is about 12.2 million or a little over 50%. Despite this
significant increase in the urban population with a water demand of 1,125,253m3/day, GWCL operates 83 water systems
with a total production of about 707,783m3/day.
In
the majority of urban areas, water is rationed due to the high demand and
inadequate supply. Customer satisfaction ranges from
excellent to very poor depending on location of the customer, but most
significantly the institutionalization of rationing programme is negatively
affecting socio-economic growth. Clearly, systems that were designed
to service the 5.6 million population will have to be modified to be able to
service the population today. With
an anticipated increase in population especially in urban areas, additional
investments should be provided to meet future increase in demand for water
services.
It is significant to note that
there is lack of proper metering of urban water production and consumption by
GWCL and therefore data available are estimates by GWCL. At the end of 2012 the average
monthly sales were just about 10,861,000 m3. GWCL still records significantly
high non-revenue water averaging about 50% and has a bill collection ratio of
about 90%. The bill collection ratio is also lower than the benchmark of 96%
and 99.2% for low and middle-income country peer groups.
The proportion of non-revenue water is more than twice
the international best practice levels of 20 % and even the benchmark of 33%
for the low-income country peer group. There are two explanations for this. One
is the ageing distribution infrastructure that is full of leaks. The other is
high non-technical loss due to large-scale theft from the distribution network,
sometimes for the purposes of secondary retailing of water sachets.
Unstable
electricity supply, encroachment, illegal small scale mining activities
(“galamsey”), delay in payment of compensation, rationing and its effects on
equipment and mounting customer indebtedness are also other factors that have
affected efficiency of operations of GWCL thus leading to unsustainable urban
water service delivery.
Appropriate metering of water production and
consumption will have to be established. There is also the need to create
stronger incentives for GWCL to address the issue of non-revenue water and to
improve water production levels, distribution network and bill collection to
improve service delivery.
Government is seeking to improve water service
delivery in peri urban areas and low income communities, but a lot more work
needs to be done in defining peri urban areas, establish current water supply
levels and supply options and strategies for providing water service to these
areas. A study by PURC concluded that the majority of the poor are un-served
directly by GWCL except through informal services or secondary and tertiary
sources.
The key challenges limiting urban and peri-urban water
service delivery are summarised as follows:
- Large
supply-demand gap
- Obsolete
plants and equipment as well as overage transmission and distribution lines
- Inadequate
distribution network in outlying districts
- Inadequate
funding for investment
- High
non-revenue water (billing shortfall)
- Low
metering ratio
- Unstable
power supply at some treatment plants e.g. Daboase, Barekese, Kwanyako and
Mampong
- Land
acquisition issues e.g. compensations, lack of access and encroachment
- Poor
physical planning and lack of co-operation among relevant agencies (e.g. Town
and Country Planning Dept)
- Low
tariffs
Rural and Small Towns Water
Service
The thrust of the National Community Water and
Sanitation Programme (NCWSP) is the community ownership and management (COM) of
the water and sanitation facilities installed in the beneficiary rural and
small town communities and the use of the private sector to support the
process.
The
national rural and small towns water coverage at the end of 2011 was 63.34%
from a baseline of 40% in the year 2000.
In the rural and small towns water sub-sector, although communities are
responsible for operation and maintenance of water facilities, responsibility
for water quality monitoring as well as major rehabilitation and replacement of
infrastructure is yet to be clarified. Thus, it is estimated that between 12% and 20%
of water facilities in rural communities and small towns are either non
functional or function below the expected standards at any given time. CWSA is yet to have adequate data on
functionality of water systems and when water facilities were installed. This affects planning for operation and
maintenance, rehabilitation and replacement of facilities that may have
outlived their lifespan.
Water
supply technology options remain limited to:
- Hand dug wells (fitted
with or without pumps),
- Boreholes (fitted with
any of the four (4) standardised pumps),
- Spring catchment
systems,
- Limited mechanisation
(i.e. mechanised boreholes with limited distribution), and
- Piped schemes (especially
for small towns)
There
are also very limited self supply initiatives and rainwater harvesting systems.
Very little consideration has been given to addressing the needs of persons
with disability in the design of water supply systems. It has been established
that the unit cost of water service delivery in Ghana is relatively higher as
compared to other countries in Sub Saharan Africa. There is room for developing more affordable
and disability friendly technology options to reduce the unit cost of water
service in rural areas and small towns.
CWSA has been able to
establish a private sector managed distribution system of hand pump spare parts
for the four (4) recognised hand pumps in Ghana. Sales outlets have been opened
in all the ten regions and the private operator has completed the repayment of
the seed funds provided to kick-start the network. According to CWSA, the
privatised network is becoming financially sustainable and will stay
operational when subsidies to the private operator end in
the near future.
However, the rural and small
towns water service delivery faces a number of challenges including the
following:
Budget Constraints: CWSA has not always received the
full complement of its approved Annual Budget either from government or its
development partners over the years. This has always been the case for
Administration, Service and the Investments components of the budget. The 2010
budget approval and releases clearly demonstrate the challenge with budget
releases. For instance, of the GH¢3.8 million approved for Investments, only
GH¢0.42 million was paid out to contractors and consultants; no amount from the
approved budget for Services was made available; and less than 50 percent of
the Administration budget was dispensed to the Agency.
Again in 2011 the entire Service budget
was not made available, and only GH¢544,459
of the approved Investments budget of
GH¢1,901,633 was disbursed to the Agency. Given the situation where the government is unable to release the
full complement of Administration budget, CWSA is unable to track budget
performance and to monitor the performance of contractors in the field.
Limited capacity at
District Assembly Level for water and sanitation delivery: District Assemblies do not have the requisite capacity
(water and sanitation engineers and hydrogeologists) to effectively implement
water and sanitation projects. Apart from the fact that the District Works
Departments, which are expected to replace the District Water and Sanitation
Teams, have not been set up in many districts, the frequent transfer of staff
trained on water and sanitation issues, adversely affects the management of
water and sanitation projects in the districts.
Hydro-geological
Problems: Difficult
Hydro-geological terrain results in low success rate in borehole drilling. This
problem is pronounced in the Voltaian Basin, which covers the Northern region
and parts of northern Volta. As a result of this situation some of the projects
are unable to attain their targets. There is also the technical challenge
associated with mud drilling within parts of the Brong Ahafo region.
Water Safety:
There are a
number of water safety (mainly water quality) issues militating against safe
drinking water delivery. These include
high iron, manganese, arsenic and fluoride found in water in some parts of the
country. Even in areas with excellent success rates for drilling, the chemical
content in the water is normally higher than the recommended levels, making it
impossible for pumps to be installed on those wells for the use of the
communities. A good number of high yielding wells have thus been capped,
especially in the Northern and Upper East regions due to high levels of
fluoride in these wells. In the coastal regions, salinity of borehole water is
a constraining factor.
Sustainability of Service
Delivery: The issue of
sustainability of the water and sanitation systems that have been provided to
the small communities and small towns is key. The expectation of CWSA is that
these facilities will function at optimal capacity through and beyond their
design life span. Current developments in the sector however threaten the
sustainability of these systems. These developments include:
- Inability of Water and Sanitation
Management Teams to set realistic tariffs
- Non-payment of institutional
bills (by government institutions); and
- Inadequate personnel and
logistics for monitoring operations and maintenance of existing systems
Basic Sanitation and Hygiene
Data
reported by the UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Ghana indicates that about
20% of the entire country’s population practises open defecation. The practice is
dominant in the three regions in Northern Ghana (Northern Region, Upper East
& Upper West Regions) where more than 70% of the population practise open
defecation.
There is also a weak culture (especially in the rural areas) for
individual household latrine ownership in Ghana. A high proportion (almost 51%)
of Ghanaians use shared latrines, which according to the JMP of WHO/UNICEF, is
classified as unimproved. Ghana intends conducting research into the shared
latrine phenomenon with a view to developing an agreed national definition for
sanitation coverage. The national sanitation
coverage rate was estimated at about 13% in 2008. The implication is that it
will require enormous effort for the country to achieve the MDG target of 53%
sanitation coverage by 2015.
Among the approaches for
sanitation promotion are Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) based on
sanitation ladder and the social-marketing techniques, which are complemented
with the establishment of sanitation markets. Communities are assisted to
attain and sustain an Open Defecation Free (ODF) status whilst the capacity of
the private sector is strengthened to support construction of sanitation
facilities. There is therefore a shift from provision of subsidy to community
ownership, mutual support and local solutions for sanitation behavioural
change.
The Ministry of Local Government and Rural
Development (MLGRD) has prepared a National Environmental Sanitation Strategy
and Action Plan (NESSAP) and accompanying Strategic Environmental Sanitation
Investment Plan (SESIP) to guide investments in the sector towards implementing
the NESSAP. NESSAP seeks to adopt
Community Led Total Sanitation as a fast means of accelerating the population’s
access and use of basic sanitation.
As a result, a national rural
sanitation model and costed scaling up strategy has been developed but is yet
to be implemented. A national hand
washing with soap strategy has also been developed by CWSA and is being
implemented in collaboration with the private sector and allied agencies since
2005.
Water
Resources Management
The country
could be described as well endowed with rainfall, lakes, perennial rivers and
limited but substantial groundwater resources. However, seasonal shortages are
quite common and the sustainability of this water endowment is threatened by
natural phenomena such as extreme spatial and temporal variability of climate
and rainfall, coupled with potential effects of a changing climate, growing
water scarcity, and trends towards desertification in the north.
Water quality considerations have become
increasingly important due to environmental problems arising from human
activities leading to land degradation, waste discharges from domestic,
municipal, industrial (including mining) and agricultural sources into rivers
and aquifers. In addition to these, other issues such as conflicts in the use
of water; a lack of consultation and co-operation mechanism in the use of
international water resources; inability to implement existing rules and
regulations for water resources management; poor financing of the water
resources agencies etc. have also come to the fore.
In resolving these water resources management issues,
Ghana has during the years from the first conceptual emergence of Integrated
Water Resources Management (IWRM) in the early 1990s, put in place a good part
of the basic policy, legal and institutional frameworks, which eventually will
sustain the implementation of IWRM in the country.
Some notable programmes and actions already in place
include:
- The establishment of the Water Resources Commission by
an Act of parliament in 1996;
- The adoption of the 2007 National Water Policy (NWP);
- The development of five river basin IWRM plans and set
up of five corresponding River Basin Boards (RBBs) between 2003 and 2012;
- Development of a national IWRM plan;
- The active involvement with neighbouring countries on
trans-boundary issues on the Volta Basin; and
- In addition, substantial capacity building has taken
place within the key institutions involved in water resources management over
the past 15 years.
Despite the
progress made in the management of water resources there are challenges and constraints that need to
be addressed. These include:
·
Inadequate
enforcement of existing regulations and permit conditions to improve water
quality in particular;
- Inadequate regulations on control of discharge of
effluent from industrial and domestic sources;
- Inadequate data and information on surface and
groundwater quantity as well as water quality;
- Inadequate skilled human resources for IWRM at
all levels;
- Climate change and climate variability impacts on
water and other natural resources are inadequately described and insufficiently
incorporated in sectoral water management strategies;
- Sustaining public awareness and education towards
promoting positive actions on water resources;
- Many activities in river basins leading to
catchment degradation and poor water quality are unregulated (e.g. buffer
zone policy is yet to be implemented);
- Systems for early warning and mitigation of
effects from floods and droughts are inadequate;
- New protocols with Côte d’Ivoire on the joint
management of the Aby Lagoon-Bia-Tano basins system and with Togo on
shared groundwater resources are yet to be established; and
CROSS-CUTTING CHALLENGES
Governance: In terms of
governance, considerable progress has been made in institutional reforms and
alignment of institutions in the water sector. For instance, the involvement of
MMDAs and communities in the management of rural and small towns water and
sanitation facilities within the framework of the National Community Water and
Sanitation Programme (NCWSP) and the establishment of the Water Directorate and
Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate at the MWRWH and MLGRD
respectively are key milestones that have improved governance in the water
sector.
However, there are
governance issues worth noting. Reporting on sector progress and tracking of
investments by all stakeholders including Development Partners (DPs), Government
and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the sector has been weak. It is
quite difficult to track allocation and expenditure on investments by Government
and DPs in the water sector due to lack of a harmonised system for disbursement
of funds. There is very little information on the contribution of NGOs to the
water sector due to weak regulatory and reporting framework. There is room for
improving collaboration between MMDAs and sub sector institutions especially
the interface between MMDAs and GWCL in urban water delivery.
With support from CWSA,
MMDAs and communities have established sub district level structures to manage
existing water and sanitation facilities. However, the degree of functionality
of these sub district level structures and systems (such as Water and
Sanitation (WATSAN) Committees, Water and Sanitation Development Boards
(WSDBs), Area Mechanics and Latrine Artisans) to manage existing water and
sanitation facilities begins to wane with the withdrawal of project support by
CWSA. WATSAN
Committees and WSDBs have been sustainable where they are provided adequate
post project technical support when a project ends. In most instances however,
the reverse has been the case i.e. limited or no post project support resulting
in non-functioning WATSAN Committees/WSDBs.
Within the framework of
managing the country’s water resources, WRC is facilitating the establishment
of River Basin Boards (RBBs) and offices as the decentralised management
structure to oversee the regulation and management of water resources at the
basin level. Unfortunately, the WRC has been unable to establish all the RBBs
due to limited capacity and funding.
Institutional
Capacity: The Water Directorate does not
have the required staffing and budgetary allocation from Government and this
affects its capacity to support MWRWH to provide leadership on sector
issues. Furthermore, there is the need
to appraise and develop capacity of GWCL, CWSA and WRC to enable them perform
their functions effectively and efficiently.
GWCL
will require capacity building support to improve urban water service delivery
i.e. production, distribution, revenue collection and customer care. CWSA will
require capacity building support in terms of human, financial and logistical
resources at the national and regional level to effectively play a facilitator
role and in the near future, to regulate the rural and small towns sub sector.
This is on account of the increasing number of districts CWSA has had to deal
with and emerging challenges with rural and small towns’ water service
delivery. As indicated WRC needs capacity building support for setting up and
operating the RBBs.
Coordination: There is consensus and commitment among
sector stakeholders towards a Sector Wide Approach (SWAp) for the sector to
effectively align and harmonise interventions in the water sector. The code of
conduct under the SWAp has been signed among stakeholders, while a country
assessment study has been finalised to establish the financing mechanism and
arrangements under the SWAp. Coordination among MWRWH, MoFEP, MLGRD and DPs
needs to be strengthened especially through sharing of information and ensuring
that the water sector is given more priority in Government’s budgetary
allocation.
Finance: Government makes contributions towards
services and investment costs in all the water sector agencies, but the
allocations have been inadequate. The variation in government
budgeted and actual releases have been as high as 95% in some instances. This
affects the performance of sector institutions and results in delays with
implementation of planned interventions. In April 2010, Government declared
water and sanitation as essential services, signed the Ghana Sanitation and
Water for All (SWA) Compact and made a commitment to invest $350 million
annually to accelerate progress towards achievement of the MDG targets. This
commitment is yet to materialise.
There is limited financing for investments and renewal
of assets by GWCL. As a result, GWCL has been unable to provide satisfactory
service to its customers. There are lifeline tariffs and subsidies as a means
of improving access to water services to the poor. These measures have been
poorly targeted and as a result, the subsidies benefit the rich rather than the
poor.
Sector financing is
still “new infrastructure focused” with little attention to post construction
cost and incremental cost by implementing agencies. In a study of investments
in the rural and small towns’ water sector since the inception of NCWSP, it was
established that investments in new facilities accounted for 58% of investments
in the rural and small towns sub sector as compared to 48% for rehabilitation
works. The absorptive capacity of some sector agencies and the private sector
in utilising investments in the sector is also weak owing to human, procurement,
and other logistical constraints.
There is also a
generally low financial resource allocation for water and sanitation activities
at the district level. In a study of selected MMDAs in six regions by the Water
Sector Monitoring Platform, it was established that MMDAs utilised between 0.01%
and 5.4% of proceeds from their District Assemblies Common Fund in 2008 for
interventions in water and sanitation.
In effect, the water
sector requires increased financial investment from government and other
non-traditional funding sources including private sector financing to ensure
sustainable financing of the sector given the fact that upon attaining lower
middle-income status, DP support in the form of grants is likely to decrease.
STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION
A
number of strategies have been outlined to address the existing and emerging
challenges facing the water sector by way of planning,
development and management of the nation’s water resources and in the delivery
of equitable and sustainable water supply and water related sanitation
services. These cover the period
2012-2025.
Water Service
Delivery
In order to meet the
MDG targets (76% coverage in rural/small towns and 85% coverage in urban areas
by 2015) and attain universal coverage in water service by 2025, new
investments and rehabilitation works in the urban water sub sector and in the
rural and small towns’ water sub sector are proposed. In implementing planned
investments, priority will be given to providing water services in un-served
areas, peri urban and low-income communities.
The planned investments
in water services in both rural and urban water sectors have been informed by projection
of water demand and population increases over the planning horizon i.e.
2012-2015 and 2016 to 2025 as captured in the Strategic Investment Plans of
CWSA and GWCL. Government is to leverage the required financing from domestic
and external sources to implement the proposed investments to improve service
delivery. With the implementation of
proposed investments in both the rural/small towns and urban sub sectors, it is
expected that all households will receive at least a basic level of water service
in Ghana by 2025.
Government will develop
and implement a national water safety plan to address challenges with water
quality monitoring across all subsectors i.e. urban, rural, and water resources
management. The framework will build on work already done by PURC, CWSA and the
Ghana Standards Authority and will be anchored within the existing framework
for water quality monitoring.
Urban Water Service
In the urban water sub
sector, reduction in non-revenue water is critical to improving service delivery.
The strategy is to institute measures to reduce non-revenue water from the
current 50% to 45% in 2015 and 33% by 2025.
- Firstly, the appropriate metering of water production and consumption
must be pursued. This will ensure the availability of the required data in
order to track water production and losses along the distribution chain.
This measure must also be complemented with the introduction and scaling
up of zonal metering to track leakages and theft within the distribution
network.
- Secondly, carry out an institutional capacity assessment that will
inform the design and implementation of a capacity building plan and
institutional reforms for GWCL. These activities are expected to address
work ethics, customer care and efficiency in service delivery among staff.
- Thirdly, GWCL must be supported to further decentralise its operations
and strengthen collaboration with MMDAs and sub district level structures.
- Fourthly, provide the required financing for rehabilitation, upgrading
and expansion of the all the 83 urban water systems being managed by GWCL
as captured in the GWCL SIP to reduce leakages.
- Fifthly, the current urban water tariff is set to include a
non-revenue water component or loss of 45%. The PURC must be supported to
progressively reduce the proportion of non-revenue water component on
water tariffs to 40% by 2020 and 33% by 2025. This will ensure that GWCL’s
inefficiencies are not passed on to consumers through the upward
adjustment of tariffs and also inject efficiency in urban service delivery.
Peri Urban and Low Income
Communities Water Service
There is the need to map out
low income urban and peri urban communities which are currently un-served and
under-served with potable water supply and develop a framework for targeting
the poor, address the “compound housing effect” of lifeline tariffs on the poor
and improving water service delivery in low income communities.
In order to improve water
service delivery in peri urban water areas, the options to be considered
include the following:
· WSDB management of a water
facility or distribution of bulk water supply from GWCL or community owned
network;
· Area Council/Unit Committee
management of a water facility or bulk water supply from GWCL or community
owned network; and
· Private operator management of
a water facility or bulk water supply from GWCL or community owned network.
Rural and Small Towns Water Service
Investments in the rural water sub sector over the
years have focused on new investments rather than rehabilitation, and operation
and maintenance of existing facilities. Hence, the strategy is to create a
database on all water facilities, establish their functionality and their
respective dates of installation.
Water Related
Sanitation and Hygiene Service
CWSA is to facilitate the
implementation of the rural sanitation programme under the WSSDP and within the
framework of the NESSAP and related implementation documents and policies
notably:
- The National Sanitation Model and Scaling Up Strategy: has been
developed based on a three pronged approach of sanitation marketing;
Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) for changing attitudes towards safe
hygiene and sanitation practices and triggering demand for and use of
household latrines; and providing microcredit through rural and community
banks and micro finance institutions to support household latrine
construction;
- The National
Hand washing with Soap: seeks to promote hand washing with soap
practice through an active partnership between the public and private
sectors; and
- The national household water treatment and safe
storage strategy: seeks to promote household water treatment technologies
and approaches as a means to improving hygiene.
Water Resources Management
Under water resources
management five (5) key strategies are to be pursued:
-
Strengthen the regulatory and institutional framework
for managing and protecting water resources for water security and enhancing
resilience to climate change
-
Enhance public awareness and education in water
resource management issues
-
Improve access to water resources knowledge base to
facilitate water resources planning and decision making
- Improve
transboundary and international cooperation in the management of shared water
resources
- Ensure
gender equity in water resources management and planning
CROSS CUTTING
STRATEGIES/INTERVENTIONS
The
Private Sector
The private sector is to play the following role
in delivery of goods, services and works in the water sector.
-
Participation
in operation and maintenance of water systems as well as financing arrangements
e.g. Build, Own and Operate (BOO), Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) etc.
-
Provide hygiene and sanitation facilities at the
household and institutional levels in the area of basic sanitation. The private
sector will supply the required household and institutional sanitation
facilities as a result of the expected demand through the adoption of CLTS
approach to sanitation and hygiene promotion.
-
Implement a microcredit scheme through rural community
banks and microfinance institutions to provide loans to households for
household latrine construction.
- Provide microcredit for
the construction of 50,000 household latrines annually to contribute to
improving access to safe sanitation facilities.
-
Provide financial support for developing buffer strips
that would serve as alternative livelihood source and protect the water bodies.
Financing
An estimated US$237 million in capital investment (CAPEX) is
required annually for water supply. Estimated requirements for sanitation are
higher, at US$406 million per year, a substantial part of which the government
expects to be borne by households. It is clear that anticipated spending will
not be enough to achieve the sector targets and that increased and more
innovative financing, sector planning, better targeting, greater efficiency,
and cost recovery approaches will be needed to address identified gaps. The following strategic mechanisms
needs to be explored to improving financing the water sector:
-
Create a uniform treasury
system involving the use of country system to channel funds for financing all
investments, including those in the water and sanitation sector.
-
Be committed to increasing
public sector funding of the water sector especially the rural and small towns
water sub sector and the water resources management sub sector.
-
Leverage more financing for
sector activities through increased budgetary allocations, grants, loans and
private sector financing. It is expected that Government’s contribution to
investments for the rural water/small towns and water resources sub-sectors
will reach 30% by 2015, 50% by 2020 and 100% by 2025.
-
Explore private sector
financing arrangement such as Build, Operate and Own (BOO) and Build, Operate
and Transfer (BOT) within the framework for private sector participation in the
rural and small towns’ water sector. Target is to secure private sector
financing to the tune of about 5% of sector investments by 2015.
-
Support measures to improve
the financial viability of GWCL in order to meet full operation and maintenance
cost and for rehabilitation.
-
Be committed to ensuring that
urban consumers progressively bear the full cost of rehabilitation of urban
water systems.
-
Rural water development levy
payment to CWSA to be tied to revenue inflows to GWCL. This will improve
financing of CWSA activities in the rural and small towns sub sector.
-
Allocate 1% of the cost of new
investments in water services for water resources management. This will ensure
that the water resource potential of the source of water supply is preserved.
The funds will be utilised to design and implement a water resource management
programme as an accompanying intervention with new investments.
-
At the district level MMDAs
are to allocate resources for investment in water and sanitation service
delivery and bear the cost of major rehabilitation works and replacement of
water facilities that have outlived their lifespan. This support will be
complemented with the implementation of follow up training programmes for
community level structures (e.g. WATSANs and WSDBs) every four (4) years to
ensure 95% and 98% functionality of rural and small towns’ water systems by
2015 and 2025 respectively. MMDAs will ensure that WSDBs allocate adequate
funds for major rehabilitation and replacement of small towns’ piped schemes.
-
Explore different
possibilities for the creation of a financing mechanism to cover the costs of
capital maintenance expenditure in small-town systems. This will include
liaising with the National Insurance Commission to explore the possibility of
getting insurance companies to provide insurance cover for existing water
facilities. If feasible, MMDAs are encouraged to insure existing water
facilities in their respective areas of jurisdiction. This will contribute to
ensuring that water facilities are utilised over their full lifespan.
Knowledge Management
Interventions targeted
to improve knowledge management are:
- Support
research on cost saving measures, innovations and best practices in water and
sanitation service delivery. Research areas or topics will come from the
various water sector agencies and departments as well as civil society and the
private sector.
- The
existing National Learning Alliance platform is to be strengthened and extended
to the regional and district levels. The district level learning alliance
sessions will also provide the platform for discussing reports on the
activities of WSDBs.
-
Undertake periodic (every 4
years) sector specific surveys similar to and in between the timing of Multiple
Indicator Custer Survey (MICS) and Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS)
and covering rural, small towns and urban water supply, basic sanitation and
hygiene.
Gender
Mainstreaming
- As
part of capacity building support measures WATSAN Committees/WSDBs are to be
trained on the complementary roles of both sexes in water and sanitation
service delivery.
- Women
are to be encouraged to take up leadership positions in water and sanitation
service delivery in both rural and small towns.
Monitoring
and Evaluation
Set up a National Monitoring and Evaluation
Coordination Group with clear terms of reference. The M&E Coordination
Group will prepare an M&E plan, system and strategy for the sector.
Summary of Key Strategies
|
Strategic Area
|
Objectives
|
Key Strategies
|
|
Urban & Peri Urban Water Service
|
Improve access to water
services especially for all in urban and peri urban areas
|
1. Increase water
services in low income and peri urban communities
2. Improve water
production and distribution system
|
|
Rural & Small Towns Water Service
|
Improve access to wa
|
1. Provide new water
facilities in under-served and un-served rural areas and small towns
2. Institute appropriate
mechanism for rehabilitation, operation and maintenance of existing
facilities
|
|
Rural and Small Towns Sanitation & Hygiene Service
|
Maximise
health benefits through integration of water, sanitation and hygiene
education interventions
|
Promote safe
sanitation and hygiene practices in all water beneficiary institutions and
communities;
|
|
Water Resources Management
|
Strengthen the regulatory and
institutional framework for managing and protecting water resources for water
security and enhancing resilience to climate change
|
1 Enhance the policy framework for
IWRM
2. Enhance the implementation of
existing regulations on WRM
3. Develop and implement
additional regulations on Dam Safety and Effluent discharges
4. Ensure the protection and
conservation of river basins and wetlands for water security as well as
enhanced resilience and adaptation to climate change
|
|
Enhance
public awareness and education in water resource management issues
|
Strengthen communication campaigns
and education to stimulate interest and promote support for WRM-related
initiatives
|
|
|
Improve
access to water resources knowledge base to facilitate water resources
planning and decision making
|
1 Improve hydrological and
meteorological data and information management
2 Promote scientific
investigations and research in water resources assessment, management and
development.
|
|
|
Improve
transboundary and international cooperation in the management of shared water
resources
|
Facilitate the development of
bilateral and multilateral agreements/ protocols to strengthen cooperation
with riparian countries in shared basins
|
|
|
Institutional
Capacity Development and Governance
|
1. Ensure that all
institutional structures perform their roles efficiently and effectively
2. Ensure that the water
sector operates in a transparent and accountable manner
3. Ensure an effectively
harmonised and aligned water sector
|
1. Strengthen capacity of
all institutional structures
2. Facilitate timely
reporting and participatory discussion of results/issues in the water sector;
3. Institute appropriate
mechanism to track funds flow and investment in the sector.
4. Development and
implementation of a sector coordination framework
|
|
Finance
|
Ensure
sustainable financing of investment and operation and maintenance cost of
water services
|
1. Periodic review of
urban water tariffs to reflect full operation and maintenance cost of service
delivery
2. Attract private
sector financing for investment and operation and maintenance of water
services
3. Implement measures to
reduce non-revenue water
4. Create a mechanism
for financing capital maintenance expenditure for rural and small-town
systems
|
|
Knowledge Management,
Gender and M&E
|
1. Promote generation,
sharing and utilization of knowledge relevant to the water sector
2. Provide
evidence-based data and knowledge to improve decision making in the water
sector
3. Ensure gender equity in participation in water and sanitation
issues at all levels
|
1. Support research,
dissemination and discussion of research results on key issues affecting
water and sanitation service delivery
2. Promote scientific
investigations and research in water resources assessment, management and
development.
3. Development and
operationalisation of a national M&E system to track sector progress
4. Empowering both sexes
to appreciate their complementary roles in water and sanitation service
delivery as well as water resources management.
|
ENOCH OFOSU
blessedenoch@gmail.com
