The Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) is calling for civil society groups to be involved in monitoring rural water services across Ghana. According to the Executive Secretary of CONIWAS, Mr Ben Arthur, his members are well placed to monitor the delivery of water services at the community level, in view of their location and length of stay at the communities.
Published on: 29/06/2012
The Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) is calling for civil society groups to be involved in monitoring rural water services across Ghana. According to the Executive Secretary of CONIWAS, Mr Ben Arthur, his members are well placed to monitor the delivery of water services at the community level, in view of their location and length of stay at the communities.
Mr. Arthur said, “CONIWAS members are within the communities and they provide useful links to the sector institutions so that together we think we can do a good job by supporting communities in monitoring their facilities”.
CONIWAS is a membership based network of about 50 civil society organisations in the water and sanitation sector in Ghana. Their role has largely been providing water and sanitation facilities and engaging in hygiene promotion. But Mr. Arthur believes that extending their role to monitoring facilities and services will go a long way to enhancing sustainability.
Mr. Arthur was interviewed as part of a process to document the impact of the Triple-S Project at its mid-point. Triple-S Ghana has begun a documentation process to solicit the views of key stakeholders of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector to assess what more needs to be done and what legacy the project is likely to leave behind.
CONIWAS is concerned that facilities provided to communities are not sustained. Mr. Arthur said that it is unacceptable that about 30% percent of facilities are not functioning countrywide. “This is an investment issue because we are talking of a sector which doesn’t have enough money and if 30% percent of the facilities are breaking down then it is like we are putting water in a basket with holes in them”.
CONIWAS has over the years advocated for increased coverage especially to serve the most vulnerable in society, and now plans also to emphasise the sustainability of facilities.
Mr. Arthur says, CONIWAS is now advocating that whatever a stakeholder puts in place, “you have to put effective mechanisms to monitor these facilities so that in the long run the communities will have the capacities to ensure that they deliver the service required during the lifetime of the facilities.”
One way to enrich the process of tracking service delivery is to look at water user satisfaction, says Mr. Arthur. CONIWAS members use community scorecards throughout the country as a tool to track accountability for what has to be delivered and assess the effectiveness of services.
Mr. Arthur noted this could complement service-level data collection in communities. Giving service providers feedback through community scorecards is likely to enhance their performance, because citizens will always demand improved service and accountability, he said.
Mr. Arthur believes strongly that interacting with the community through the community scorecard process will enhance citizen engagement with service authorities and service providers.
As a civil society network, CONIWAS is also looking more broadly at how products from the Triple-S pilot regions and districts can be adopted by members for scaling up in other parts of the country.
June 29, 2012
Lamisi Dabire
