Ensuring rural water services that last in Ghana

Published on: 04/07/2011

The objective of CWSA is to ensure sustainable services are provided to users as per the agreed norms and standards for rural water services as follows:

• Portable water is delivered to meet standards set by the Ghana Standards Board
• Un-interrupted water supply for 95 days out 100 days over the life time of the facility
• Self financing ratio should be greater than 100%
• Water supply meets per capita consumption of 20L/person/day
• The facility should be within 500 meters from homestead

How is CWSA deploying this?

• Facilitating dialogue for adoption of Service Delivery Approach for rural water supply in Ghana.
• Integrating the Service Delivery Approach through ongoing initiatives e.g. the World Bank Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project
• Piloting the concepts in the Brong Ahafo, Volta and Northern Regions
• Testing innovative approaches for service delivery in Akatsi, Sunyani West and East Gonja and mapping processes and steps for national level upscale
• Developing and publishing water service delivery documents including implementation manuals and guidelines for a harmonized and coordinated approach to delivering rural water services in Ghana

Why sustainable services?

Approximately one out of every three rural water supply systems in developing countries does not function at all or is performing well below its expected level. Putting in effective systems and structures to sustain water services will save hundreds of millions of dollars of investment that break down as a result of challenges with sustainability. Improving the functionality of facilities means solving the problem of millions of people from returning to fetching dirty drinking water from distant sources—to the detriment of their health, education, and livelihoods.  Focusing on sustainability will accelerate achievements of MDG’s targets and universal coverage by 2025.