The Provision Of Potable Water And A Clean Environment To Sustain Life And Livelihoods In Ghanaian Rural Communities: The Community Water And Sanitation Agency (CWSA) Intervention
- After two decades of facilitating the delivery of water and water-related sanitation services to rural communities and small towns, the CWSA has improved safe water coverage from about 27% in the mid-nineties to 62.47% in 2020. In spite of the modest achievements in coverage, there are a number of challenges that constraints the sustainability of the investments made by the government and its development partners. These include high non-revenue water, high indebtedness by water systems to electricity companies, unacceptable water quality, frequent breakdown of water systems, consistent government borrowing of funds to rehabilitate poorly managed water systems, and high indebtedness by customers to the water systems. The threats posed by these challenges led to the initiation of policy the CWSA policy reforms in 2017, after extensive research and stakeholder engagements. The objective of the policy reforms is to ensure efficient and sustainable water services delivery.
In 1998, an Act of Parliament, Act 564, established and mandated the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) to facilitate the provision of safe drinking water and related sanitation to rural communities and small towns in Ghana.
Over the past 20 years, CWSA has been the facilitator for delivering water and water related sanitation services and providing technical support to District Assemblies and communities to implement the community management model of rural water service delivery. The water coverage for rural communities and small towns as at the end of 2020 was 62.47%, from less than 40% in 1998. There is currently a total of 32,871 boreholes fitted with hand pumps and 1,022 pipe water systems which are managed by CWSA and non-state actors such as Water and Sanitation Management Teams (WSMTs), NGOs, Private Sector Organizations (PSOs) and individuals. The Agency has also contributed significantly to the improvement of water related sanitation and hygiene across the country. These were revealed by the Director of Planning and Investment, Mr. Mohammed Ibrahim Adokor.
Giving a background to what necessitated the CWSA Rural Sub-Sector Policy Reform, Mr. Adokor stated that the Community Operation and Management (COM) model has been implemented for over two decades, and despite the gains in improving water access to 62.47% in 2020, these systems suffer from breakdowns, high rehabilitation costs, poor water quality, high Non-Revenue Water (NRW) and energy costs, poor accountability for revenue and inadequate cost recovery as well as high levels of indebtedness.
“As a result of the threats posed by these challenges to water supply in rural communities and small towns, the CWSA initiated policy reforms in the sub-sector in 2017, after extensive research and stakeholder engagements. The Policy reforms seeks to expand the mandate of the Agency to include the management of pipe water systems while maintaining support to communities to manage point water systems. The ultimate objective is to improve operational efficiency and sustained water service delivery in rural communities and small towns” Mr. Adokor further explained. Continue Here