Water supply and sanitation in Ghana

Access

The water supply and sanitation infrastructure is insufficient, especially in rural areas and concerning sanitation. There are substantial discrepancies between access data from various sources, partially because of different definitions being used by different institutions that are providing access data. According to the Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation of UNICEF and WHO, access to water and sanitation is as follows:

According to the United Nations 2015 MDG report, the target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water has been attained in Ghana. The share of non-functional supply systems in Ghana is estimated at almost one third, with many others operating substantially below designed capacity. Moreover, domestic water supply competes with a rising demand for water by the expanding industry and agriculture sectors.

About 80% of the urban population in Ghana have access to safe drinking water. However, disparities exist between urban and rural safe drinking water access. According to the Ghana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey of 2011, urban dwellers are more likely to have access to safe drinking water than the rural dwellers at 91% and 69%, respectively. Consequently, dependency on unsafe water sources is higher in rural areas. The turbidites of most local surface waters in rural areas are greater than 200 NTUs (nephelometric turbidity units) and contain high microbial and fecal contamination, putting children and the rest of the population at high risk for water-related diseases. Compared to the rest of the country, the three northern regions of Ghana are particularly deprived of clean drinking water, with one in ten children dying before their fifth birthday due to some water-related illnesses. In the main Northern Region of Ghana alone, 32% of the 2.5 million residents lack access to improved water sources and must often resort to contaminated drinking-water. Regarding sanitation, only 14% of the total population of Ghana are using an improved sanitation facility as of 2010.

This table presents the classifications of improved and unimproved water sources in Ghana since the end of the Millennium Development Goals, according to the WHO and UNICEF. As of the end of 2015, improved water sources included household water pipes, boreholes, protected dug wells and springs, and public standpipes.

Continuity of supply

According to one estimate, only one quarter of the residents in Accra receive a continuous water supply, whereas approximately 30% are provided for 12 hours each day, five days a week. Another 35% are supplied for two days each week. The remaining 10% who mainly live on the outskirts of the capital are completely without access to piped water. According to another source, the situation is even worse: In February 2008 some communities within the Accra-Tema metropolis were served either once in a week, once in a fortnight or once in a month.

The continuity of water supply in rural areas and the Northern Region of Ghana are less frequent. Particularly in rural areas, locals are forced to fetch their own water from a variety of water sources depending on location:

Effects on Education

The main traditional sources of water in many parts of rural Ghana are small ponds and unprotected wells, both of which are really easily polluted, causing diseases to the people who drink it (Oxfam). More than 50% of the rural population in Ghana also rely on unsafe water resources from vendors (Ghana Clean Water Project). This brings many diseases that really affect the population. The water that the people have has lots of parasites and high microbial content, it can also contain some dangerous minerals. Many people, mostly children, suffer from many diseases caused by this water, and some of them may even be deadly. Not only does this water affect people’s health, it also affects education. For example, in some places in Ghana, children, mostly girls, are denied their right to go to school because their schools don’t have private sanitation facilities. Instead, they are expected to spend the whole day fetching water. This affects their education and makes it harder for the coutry to develop faster. If the people had more clean water resources and sanitation the girls wouln't be denied their right to go to school, therefore, they would have an education and would increase the number of educated people in Ghana. All things considered, the water issues that Ghana is dealing with doesn't only affect the population with disease, but it also affects with the education. This does not happen too often, but it happens in some parts of Ghana, usually rural areas.

Drinking water quality

The lack of clean drinking water and sanitation systems is a severe public health concern in Ghana, contributing to 70% of diseases in the country.Due to unclean water and improper sanitation, Ghana has 1,000 kids under five years old dying everyday from diarrhea, caused by this polluted water. The water that they get from ponds, lakes or rivers is a really bad quality, which means that it has bacterias and it may even contain some dangerous minerals causing the people to get diseases, and affecting the children population so much. Consequently, households without access to clean water are forced to use less reliable and hygienic sources, and often pay more.

Contaminated drinking water, along with poor sanitation, are linked to transmission of water-related diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio. Due to drinking contaminated water, diarrheal disease is the third most commonly reported illness at health centers across the country and 25% of all deaths in children under the age of five are attributed to diarrhea. In addition to lack of sanitation infrastructure, some cultural beliefs and views encourage open defecation. Of the total population in Ghana, 23% use open defecation as their sanitation facility. However, as much as 72% of people in the Northern Region open defecate, making it the region with the highest prevalence of open defecation in the country.

The majority of waterborne illnesses are enteric diseases (i.e. intestinal diseases) transmitted through the fecal-oral route. In the transmission pathways of disease through water contamination, human feces from public defecation end up in water sewages and non-recycling latrines, which is then collected in the local surface waters by rainfall and ingested by local inhabitants through direct exposure, absorption and ingestion. Surface waters are the main drinking-water source for the communities of Northern Region, Ghana.

Wastewater treatment

It is estimated that in 2000 the urban areas of Ghana generated about 763,698 m³ of wastewater each day, resulting in approximately 280 million m³ over the entire year. Regional capitals count for another 180 million m³. Only a small share of the generated urban wastewater is collected, and an even smaller share is being treated. Inadequate management of urban, industrial and agricultural wastewater often means that the drinking-water of millions of people is either dangerously contaminated or chemically polluted. In Accra, the share of wastewater collected is approximately 10%. Moreover, less than 25% of the 46 industrial and municipal treatment plants in Ghana were functional according to an inventory undertaken by the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency in 2001. Treatment plants for municipal wastewater are operated by local governments, and most of them are stabilization ponds. A biological treatment plant has been built in the late 1990s at Accra's Korle Lagoon. However, it only handles about 8% of Accra's wastewater.

Water use

In 2000, total water withdrawal was 982 million m³, of which two thirds were used for agricultural purposes. Another 10% was withdrawn for industry, leaving 24% or 235 million m³ for domestic use. Furthermore, 37,843 km³ are used for hydroelectricity generation at the Akosombo Dam each year.

History and recent developments

In 1928, the first piped water supply system was constructed at Cape Coast. The Water Supply Division of the Public Works Department was responsible for the service provision in rural and urban areas of Ghana. After Ghana's independence in 1957, the division was separated from the Public Works Department and placed under the Ministry of Works and Housing. In 1965, it was transformed into the Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation (GWSC), a legal public utility responsible for the provision of urban and rural water supply for public, domestic, and industrial purposes as well as the establishment, operation, and control of sewerage systems.

Decentralization, focus on rural areas and independent regulation (1994-1999)

In the mid-1990s, under the Presidency of Jerry Rawlings and after the passing of a new democratic Constitution in 1992, the government of Ghana enacted five key laws that affected the responsibility for water supply and sanitation:

In 1999, the responsibility to support communities in the provision of water supply and sanitation in more than 110 small towns and in rural areas was transferred to the District Assemblies. Sanitation also became a responsibility of the District Assemblies, both in urban and rural areas. Furthermore, the government pursued private sector participation in urban water supply with the assistance of the World Bank through preparatory studies and workshops, but without actually bringing in the private sector yet.

Private sector participation in urban areas (2000-2011)

To carry out the private sector participation of GWCL, originally a 10-year lease contract was envisaged. In 2000, a lease contract between GWCL and the US company Azurix failed due to public opposition and accusations of corruption which led to the formation of the Coalition against Water Privatization. In October 2006, under the Presidency of John Kufuor and with the support of the World Bank-funded Urban Water Project (see below) a five-year management contract was signed between the GWCL and Aqua Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL), a consortium of the Dutch public water company Vitens and the South African public company Rand Water. The main objectives of the 5-year management contract were:

In rural areas, the powers and resources of District Assemblies were strengthened through the Local Government Service Act 656 of 2003. The Act transferred the power to appoint, promote and discipline civil servants from the national government to the District Assemblies. Furthermore, in 2006 a Districts Development Fund was created to channel central government and donor funds in a transparent and effective way to District Assemblies. An Environmental, Health and Sanitation Directorate was created in the Ministry of Local Governments and Rural Development in 2009 in order to focus more on sanitation. In this context a program was launched to eliminate open defecation through community-led total sanitation.

Responsibility for water supply and sanitation

According to a multi-donor review of Ghana's water supply sector, it is "quite well structured", with the government in charge of policy and regulation, while the private sector and communities play important roles in service delivery. The institutional framework for sanitation is much less clear, with responsibilities not being clearly defined.

Policy and regulation

At the moment, a number of institutions exist to supervise and regulate water supply and sanitation. The policy framework is based on the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS).

General water sector policies for both rural and urban areas are set by the Water Directorate within the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH). Furthermore, the ministry solicits funding from external support agencies, monitors the sector, and advises the Cabinet. The Water Sector Restructuring Secretariat, created in 1997 in the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, oversees the process of private sector participation in the sector.

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development shares responsibility for setting sanitation policies and coordinating funding for the subsector with MWRWH. The government promotes decentralization so that sanitation policies are expected to be carried out by Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies. To enforce environmental quality laws, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Ministry of Environment and Science is expected to examine the impact of sanitation development activities on the environment.

To overcome the lack of coordination between the numerous sector institutions, the Minister of Water Resources, Works, and Housing, Abubakar Saddique Boniface, launched a National Water Policy (NWP) in February 2008, which covers water resources management, water supply and sanitation. Although the sector has made progress, a lack of coherence in policy formulation resulted in a multitude of implementation strategies. The NWP aimed to formulate a comprehensive sector policy and to make it easier for development partners to provide the necessary support to the sector. The NWP had been prepared by the Water Resources Commission (WRC) since 2002.

Urban areas

The Ghana Water Company Ltd. (GWCL) is responsible for providing, distributing, and conserving water for domestic, public, and industrial purposes in 82 urban systems in localities with more than 5,000 inhabitants. Local private companies are in charge of meter installation, customer billing, and revenue collection. Urban sanitation is a responsibility of local governments.

Rural areas

The Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) is in charge of coordinating and facilitating the implementation of the National Community Water and Sanitation Programme (NCWSP) in rural areas, which is carried out directly by the communities and their District Assemblies. The NCWSP focuses on three main objectives in order to achieve health improvements: safe water supply, hygiene education, and improved sanitation.

The CWSA was created in 1994 under the framework of the Ghana decentralization policy and became autonomous in 1998. The institution does not directly construct, operate, and maintain facilities for water supply and sanitation. Instead, its role is to coordinate the work of a number of actors which carry out the services in rural areas, including public sector organizations, local beneficiary communities, private sector organizations, and NGOs. The CWSA is also expected to ensure that financial support from development partners is effectively used and to ensure hygiene education. The agency operates ten regional offices besides its head office in Accra.

In communities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, water supply systems are owned and managed by the respective community on a demand-driven basis. According to the NCWSP, these systems do not receive any cross-subsidies and 5% of investment costs are paid by District Assemblies. Communities and in rural areas and small towns elect gender-balanced water and sanitation boards consisting of volunteers, including one or two village-based caretakers who received special training in repair and maintenance. Communities can contract private companies or NGOs to provide technical assistance, goods, or services. Local companies drill boreholes and build hand-dug wells, and local artisans are used to provide household latrines. Maintenance units of CWSA have been privatized and the regional companies created through this process now perform major repairs on behalf of District Assemblies. Minor repairs are carried out by area mechanics. The communities' water and sanitation boards receive technical assistance by District Water and Sanitation Teams (DWST), ideally consisting of an engineer, a hygiene expert, and a community mobilizer. However, in some districts these teams are so weak that the regional teams of CWSA resort to providing direct assistance to local water and sanitation boards.

Other stakeholders

The Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS), created in 2001, "works in partnership with sector players to influence policies, remove barriers and promote access to potable water, sanitation and improved hygiene for the poor and vulnerable." According to the coalition, giving NGOs one voice for advocacy and lobbying has been one of its major benefits.

Innovations for Poverty Action

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) was founded in 2002 as a research and policy non-profit organization that aims to discover and promote effective solutions to global poverty issues. IPA recruits researchers and decision-makers to measure the impacts of interventions in the areas of agriculture, education, health, financial inclusion, governance, peace & recovery, small & medium enterprises, and social protection among 18 country programs. Randomized Control Trials (RCT) and other forms of qualitative research are conducted in order to achieve this, including the Clean Water in Northern Ghana research study. This study assesses the willingness of households in Northern Ghana to purchase the Kosim filter that is sold by Pure Home Water (PHW), a Ghana-based NGO. The study also aims to measure the health effects of household-level water treatment in areas whose populations have a high risk of waterborne disease.

Pure Home Water

Pure Home Water (PHW) is a Ghana-based NGO and a social enterprise. Founded in 2005, PHW was designed to be a manufacturer of ceramic pot water filters located in the northern city of Tamale, Ghana. Its two goals include delivering aid to the people most in need of safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in Northern Ghana, and to become financially and locally self-sustaining. This is accomplished by providing training and monitoring of correct, consistent and continuous (3Cs) use of the AfriClay filter. They also build and disseminate hand-washing stations and sanitation facilities throughout villages in the Northern Region. PHW is a partnered organization of Innovations for Poverty Action.

Saha Global

Saha Global (formerly known as Community Water Solutions) is a Boston, Massachusetts-based nonprofit founded in 2008 that aims to meet the water and energy needs of Ghanaian communities in the Northern Region. Saha Global works to empower the women of rural Ghanaian communities to provide access to clean water and electricity through the provision of business opportunities. This is accomplished by bringing young leaders from throughout the world to Ghana through its Global Leadership Program. While in Ghana, participants train local women to build businesses which can channel revenue back into their local communities. As of 2016, 84 clean water businesses and 20 solar electric businesses have been created with the aid of Saha Global, and 100% of these businesses are in full operation to date.

Water.org

Water.org is an American and internation nonprofit developmental aid organization designed to deliver access to safe water and sanitaiton around the world by pioneering innovative and sustainable solutions to the global water crisis. This organization was founded in 1990 after the merging of two water NGOs: H2O Africa, co-founded by Matt Damon, and WaterPartners, co-founded by Gary White. Through its efforts in making water and sanitation safe, accessible and cost-effective, Water.org has continued to deliver aid to more than four million lives around the world for over 25 years. Currently, Water.org is working in two rural areas in Ghana: Volta Region and Upper East Region. These districts are among the poorest of the country, with less than half of the population having little access to safe drinking water and fewer families having access to improved sanitation. Additionally, the rural communities in these regions suffer greatly from waterborne diseases, including diarrhea. Water.org works with local communities and partner organizations, such as Rural Aid, to construct wells, latrines and biosand filters in Ghana as well as to provide health and hygiene education.

Non-revenue water

According to the Water Sector Restructuring Secretariat non-revenue water in urban areas stands at approximately 50% of the produced water, i.e. it is lost, among other things, due to leakage and illegal connections. According to a Ghanaian radio station, a survey showed that 3,000 out of 15,000 connections were illegal while 20 minor leaks were found. Furthermore, most of those connected to water supply do not pay their bills. At least at the end of the 1990s, the Ghanaian government participated in that poor payment culture.

As part of the efforts to reduce system losses, in February 2008 the Accra East Region of AVRL-GWCL has caused the arrest of ten illegal connection syndicates in the Adenta community. They had constructed huge underground reservoirs which served as a source of water for private water tanker operators. The tanker operators buy water from these illegal sources and sell it to private individuals at Ashaley Botwe at high prices.

Labor productivity

It is estimated that in 2010, GWCL had 7.2 per 1,000 connections. This figure is in line with regional levels. However, international good practice is less than 4 employees per 1,000 connections.

Tariffs and cost recovery

Water tariffs in Ghana are too low to recover the costs of the service. Water tariffs in rural areas tend to be higher than in urban areas.

Urban areas. In December 2015 the regulator PURC approved a 67.2% increase in urban water tariffs. Tariffs were increased from GHS1.78/m3 ($0.45/m3) to GHS3.01/m3 (US$0.76/m3). The average monthly bill for a family of five will reach GHS10.00 ($2.50). Ghana Water had requested a 400% tariff increase to fully cover costs, but the regulator had pared down the request substantially, citing concerns about affordability. Between 1990 and 1997, the average water tariff in Ghana's urban areas had been in the range of US$0.10 to US$0.15 per m³. At that time, the Government was not willing to approve major tariff increases. However, the situation changed with the creation of the regulatory agency PURC which autonomously examines and approves public service tariffs, resulting in an average water tariff of about US$0.50 in 2004. In 2006, GWCL's tariff for the first 20m³ consumed was US$0.55 per m³, whereas US$0.76 were charged for each m³ exceeding 20m³ within a month. Subsequently, the USD equivalent of tariffs decreased again with the local currency losing in value.

Rural areas. According to the CWSA's policy, the water tariff in rural areas should recover the supply cost of the service, including operation, maintenance, major repairs, replacements, and extension to new areas. Tariffs are set by the District Assemblies in rural areas. However, the supply cost should be low enough to not result in a tariff of more than US$1 per m³. A study conducted in five community-managed piped systems in the Ashanti region found an average tariff of about US$0.60 per m³ in 2003, which actually covers between 57 and 77% of the full supply cost. Another study which was carried out in 2005 indicates an average monthly expenditure for water of US$0.99 in 97 sample villages in the Volta region and US$0.89 in 103 villages in the Brong Ahafo region per household. However, in nearly 70% of the villages in Volta and only 40% of the villages in Brong Ahafo, at least 90% of the interviewed households actually paid for water. Where water use is charged, it is done through a fixed system or a pay-as-you-fetch system.

Investment and financing

Since economic efficiency as well as cost recovery in the sector are extremely low, financing water and sanitation investments in Ghana relies heavily on external funding. According to one estimate 90% of the total investment in the sector in the 1990s was made by external agencies, which contributed about US$500 million for the sector between 1990 and 2003. It is worth mentioning that sanitation generally receives much less attention. According to another estimate, more than 96% of expected financing in 2006 will be from external donors.

Despite the strong engagement of international donors, funding remains insufficient to achieve the Millennium Development Goals for water and sanitation, aiming at halving the share of the population without access to these services by 2015 compared to 1990. According to one estimate, the expansion and rehabilitation of urban infrastructure requires investments of US$1.3 billion over an unspecified period. Annual investment needs in water supply and sanitation are estimated by another source at US$150 million. Expected investment funding for 2006 was US$85 million, or 57% of the needs.

Actual annual investments in urban areas have been estimated by the Water Sector Restructuring Secretariat at around US$40 million per year, having "recently" declined to only US$17 million per year (without specifying which year). The US$ 40m figure for urban areas corresponds to about US$4 per capita, an average level compared to other low-income countries.

Private investments were mobilized through a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) project for a seawater desalination plant in Accra. The 25-year contract for the financing, construction and operation of a 60,000 cubic meter per day plant was awarded in 2012. Water will be sold at US$1.36/cubic meter to GWCL, with a guarantee from the Ministry of Finance. The World Bank subsidiary MIGA insures the package against political risk. Funding comes from the South African Standard Bank (US$88.7m) and the shareholder Abengoa Water ($38.1m). GWCL ruled out further desalination projects citing the country's abundant water resources and the need to quickly find a solution for the quickly growing Nungua area where the plant will be located. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) supports the Asutsuare Water Treatment Plant, a 500 million Euro Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) project with GWCL developed by the Belgian contractor Denys. It includes a water treatment plant with a capacity of 432,000 m3/day, located downstream from the Kpong Dam on the Volta River and two pipelines, each of approximately 73 km to Grand Accra, as well as two water reservoirs.