Rural water sector reform in Ghana : a major change in policy and structure

2 Field Note Rural Water Sector Water and Sanitation Program Reform in Ghana: An international A Major Change in partnership to help the poor gain sustained access to improved Policy and Structure water supply and sanitation services Africa Region Water, sanitation and hygiene are vital components of sustainable development and the alleviation of poverty. Across Africa, political leaders and sector specialists are generating new momentum in these important areas. This Field Note, together with the others in the same series, constitutes a timely contribution to that work. It is intended principally to help politicians, leaders and professionals in their activities. As the Water Ambassador for Africa, invited by the African Development Bank and endorsed by the African Water Task Force and the African Ministerial Summary Conference on Water (AMCOW), In little more than a decade Ghana has transformed the structure and strategy of its I commend it to your attention. rural water supply sector. In 1990 external support agencies, NGOs and a government parastatal organisation planned and constructed rural water supplies, and the parastatal was also responsible for maintaining them. By 2000, district assemblies and communities played a significant role in planning supplies, the private sector had become Salim Ahmed Salim active in drilling and other water supply services, and communities had full responsibility for Water Ambassador for Africa maintaining their supplies. The new policy and structure are attracting extra funds, and work is accelerating. This reform process started with an extended dialogue with the major stakeholders in the sector, out of which a new rural water and sanitation policy was developed. The policy was then implemented in several large pilot projects, supported by a number of external agencies, and finally the lessons from those projects were incorporated into the national programme itself. Both the policy and the process by which it was developed are of interest. Certain conditions specific to Ghana favoured the new policy, but other elements in Ghana's path to success are replicable. The latter include: the extended policy dialogue; pilot testing; the phased transfer of responsibilities to districts; and the involvement of NGOs and CBOs for community mobilisation.  a parastatal organisation under the Ministry of Works and Housing, had official responsibility for urban and rural There is always water supply and sewerage. Most of GWSC's staff and resources, however, were devoted to the urban sector. With something new just two or three staff in GWSC headquarters handling rural supplies, decision making for the rural sector passed de out of Africa facto to the large regional projects financed by external PLINY support agencies. Construction The public sector also dominated construction. The vast majority of rural water supplies were boreholes fitted with hand-pumps. GWSC and the NGOs had their own rigs, and carried out most of the drilling in Ghana, while foreign Background: the Ghana contractors were brought in by some externally funded projects. Only one Ghanaian private drilling company rural water sector in 1990 existed. The lack of competition made drilling artificially expensive. In 1990, a borehole drilled in Ghana cost on average US$9,000 compared to an average of $3,000 in In 1990, the rural water sector in Ghana was typical of UK and USA. that in many African countries. The central government and external support agencies were responsible for Maintenance planning, construction and maintenance of rural water GWSC also had responsibility for maintaining the 8,600 supplies, with little involvement of the private sector except rural point sources, mostly hand-pumps, and the eighty for the foreign consulting firms hired to run projects and small-town piped schemes. In principle, GWSC sent out international contractors to drill boreholes. regional teams with trucks and district staff on motorbikes to maintain and repair the supplies. In practice, as few Administration and planning as 40% of the hand-pumps were working at any given The Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation (GWSC), time, and the piped systems suffered frequent and 2  sometimes long supply interruptions. These problems communities accepted responsibility for operation and worsened as the number of supplies increased. One reason maintenance of their water supplies, including financing. was that GWSC focused its attention on urban supplies, Rather than wait for the government to send out a repair not rural. Also, GWSC collected only enough revenue from team, the communities would hire local hand-pump rural users to cover 10% of hand-pump maintenance costs mechanics to do the work. and 20% of the operation and maintenance costs for rural The Government of Ghana's own projects, supported by piped schemes. the World Bank, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the German International Development The progress of Bank (KfW), Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA) and other external support agencies, based new the sector by 2000 work on this policy. Through these projects, CWSA helped convert two and a half thousand existing hand-pumps to community-managed maintenance. A decade later, the structure of the rural water sector in Ghana had been transformed. The role of central The process of government had reduced and changed from controlling the planning, construction and maintenance to change in Ghana facilitating others to carry out these responsibilities. The private sector, district governments and communities had emerged as important players with primary responsibility for Ghana transformed its rural water sector through a planning and implementation, including the provision of limited step-by-step process that is still continuing. co-financingforconstructionandfullfinancingformaintenance. The policy development process Administrative changes The first stage spanned several years, from the late GWSC itself had been transformed in the process. 1980s through the early 1990s, as the government, external Responsibilities for rural supplies