Document(s) 14 of 18

Senior Lecturer, School of Communication Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana

Introduction

This paper examines the extent to which government, implementors, and users are adopting different but interrelated mechanisms to deal with water stress in Ghana. It analyzes the policy frameworks being adopted to develop alternative sources of water to meet the needs of different users, the institutional frameworks used in implementing these policies, and the participation of users at the community level.

Water resources

As is the case in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa, water demand far outstrips supply in Ghana. The main sources of water for households are piped supply from treated water sources; untreated piped water from groundwater sources; shallow boreholes; wells; and ponds, springs, lakes, rivers, and streams.

Ghana has a tropical climate. There is a wide variation of rainfall, influenced by the southwest monsoon. Mean rainfall varies from 2 000 mm in the southwest coastal area to about 850 mm in the eastern coastal area and 1 000 mm in the north.

The largest river in Ghana, the Volta, with two huge hydroelectric dams, has a catchment of 165 700 km² within the country. Volta Lake, behind Akosombo Dam, is about 300 km long and traverses the centre of the country. The other rivers are all in the south and southwest and drain about one third of the country. However, because of heavy rainfall in these areas, the rivers make up about 50% of the internal runoff. The major rivers in the north, such as the Black Volta and the White Volta, and their tributaries are perennial. The rest are dry during the long dry season.

Sources of water supply

Urban communities get most of their water supply from rivers at dams and diversion structures. Most of the surface water has to be treated to meet health standards. Surface-water resources can probably serve all urban needs for the foreseeable future through parallel programs of development and conservation.

The rural communities rely on groundwater, provided that it is available in sufficient quantities, is reliable throughout the year, and does not require treatment. The quality of groundwater is generally good, although in some locations the water contains iron and manganese deposits. Groundwater from shallow wells near streams and springs has always accounted for a large share of the potable-water supply in rural communities. Any site with static water levels of less than 10 m is a possible source of groundwater.

Two types of wells are common, namely, hand-dug wells and drilled wells (boreholes):

• Hand-dug wells generally have a large diameter and are constructed using simple tools, such as pickaxes and shovels. Their depth ranges from 5 to 20 m. They can be lined with concrete cast on site, precast concrete rings, rock, or concrete blocks. They serve about 200 people.
• Boreholes are hand- or machine-drilled wells. Hand-drilled wells have a small diameter and are sunk using special tools, such as bits or augers. Machine-drilled wells are typically 100-200 mm in diameter and are sunk using relatively sophisticated equipment powered by diesel or electric motors. Machine drilling is suitable for depths of up to 50 m, but the depth depends on the power of the rig and the geological conditions. The number of people that can be served by a drilled well depends on the capacity of the handpump, but it is typically about 300.

Water is found in most wells, even in dry regions. The success rate of boreholes depends on the rock formation and varies from region to region. The national success rate of drilling is about 70% and ranges from as high as 95% to as low as 30%.

In 1993 a machine-drilled well with a handpump cost 4.7 million GHC (in 1996, 1 580 cedi [GHC] = 1 United States dollar [USD]), whereas a hand-dug well cost 477 000 GHC with a bucket system or 795 000 GHC with a handpump. Therefore, per dollar of investment, four to seven times more people can be served by a dug well.

For rural communities, a hand-dug well has several advantages. The use of simple hand tools for construction provides employment for local artisans, serves as a focus for community mobilization, and could be opportune for educating the villages on water-related health and social issues.

Traditional wells constructed by local artisans, however, have some limitations. In the absence of hydrogeological surveys (or when the surveys are poorly done), wells may be sited in locations with shallow water tables. In some cases, the simple hand tools used in construction may not be able to penetrate below the water table. The result may be that water is not available year-round. Poor design of the apron and the well platform (they are often left open) exposes the wells to contamination. They can also be a hazard to small children, who may accidentally fall in.

Some of these concerns could be addressed if the communities construct the wells under the supervision of technical personnel.

Water policy and program

According to Population Action International (1993), per capita available renewable freshwater in Ghana in 1955 was 9 204 m³. By 1990, it had declined to 3 529 m³. This is about double the amount defined as the upper limit for water stress, but it is estimated that by 2025 per capita renewable freshwater will dwindle to 1 400 m³, well within the zone of water stress.

The Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation

The Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation (GWSC), a parastatal under the Ministry of Works and Housing, is the only institution with authority for developing, operating, and managing water supplies for domestic and industrial uses and for establishing, operating, and controlling sewerage systems. GWSC does not receive government budgetary allocations for recurrent expenditures and must raise funds from consumers and users to meet its overhead and maintenance costs. In urban centres, GWSC has been the principal agency for the development of water programs in recent times; in rural communities, the parastatal, donor agencies, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have made significant interventions in the development of water systems.

GWSC has its national headquarters in Accra, offices in each of the nine regional capitals, and regional stores and maintenance centres in many of the 110 administrative districts. Of its 4 500 staff in 1993, fewer than 50 dealt with rural water matters, yet the corporation is responsible for maintaining the 6 600 drilled wells fitted with handpumps that serve rural communities.

The Department of Community Development under the Ministry of Local Government, which is traditionally responsible for local mobilization and education for development projects, has a technical unit experienced in the construction and maintenance of water facilities and in the construction of roads and buildings. The department has implemented water programs in the past.

District assemblies (local elected administrative structures or authorities) have also developed small water projects, although they mainly supervise GWSC water projects established by ESAs or externally funded NGOs.

National policy and programs

The government policy has been to provide potable water to consumers at the least cost. Communities with more than 2 000 people were entitled to piped water; those with between 500 and 2 000 people, to boreholes with handpumps; and those with fewer than 500 people, to hand-dug wells with buckets. However, GWSC found that extending piped water to rural communities was expensive.

By the early 1970s, there were 208 water-supply facilities under GWSC authority, mainly piped systems. By 1989, 93% of communities with more than 5 000 inhabitants had access to piped water. In rural communities, 20% of residents had piped water, and 30% relied on drilled wells with handpumps or dug wells. Although access or supply increased from the late 1960s to the early to mid-1970s, by the late 1980s an overall decline had set in.

Neither the government-subsidized operations nor consumer tariffs were based on the costs of maintenance and replacement. Instead, they were based on the community's ability to pay. A 1991 GWSC study found that, of the 208 piped water systems, 77 in the rural areas could not meet direct operating costs (GWSC 1993). Estimates showed that even an increase of 500% in prevailing tariffs would not meet the costs. Thus, in addition to general national economic decline, by the early 1980s most of the water systems under the corporation's management had run down. By the end of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade in 1990, only 49% of Ghanaians had access to clean water supplies.

A joint study by GWSC and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1993 found that urban water-supply coverage had dropped from 93% to 76%. Rural water supply, however, had increased, reaching 46% of the population as a result of a number of interventions by GWSC, ESAs, and NGOs. At the end of 1993, GWSC maintained 6574 wells fitted with handpumps in all 10 regions. Donor and development agencies altogether had established 8695 wells fitted with handpumps in rural communities in all the regions.

In 1987, the Rural Water Division was created, and a 5-year (1987-92) program was proposed that would involve sinking 10 000 hand-dug wells in more than 7 500 rural communities with fewer than 500 people. The goal was to reach more than 2.4 million people. The program planned to drill 6 000 wells with handpumps for more than 1 000 villages of between 500 and 2 000 people, reaching a population of 1.1 million. The objective was to improve drinking-water sources in 60% of the rural areas.

User tariffs

The implementation of structural adjustment programs (SAPs), based on free-enterprise principles and the near-total withdrawal of state subsidy for social services and utilities in favour of privatization, has shaped GWSC's more recent policy of economic tariffs for users. Since 1985 user tariffs have risen by 10% for industrial and domestic use in urban and rural areas. Under the SAPs, measures taken to increase coverage and efficiency included

• revising water tariffs to ensure self-financing;
• restructuring the service to introduce regional and district autonomy in management of the services;
• assigning the ownership and maintenance of water-supply facilities to communities; and
• creating a national coordinating body for water and sanitation in rural areas.

Tariffs were first introduced in the rural areas when external agencies installed potable-water systems. The tariffs have not been well received by the communities, and many have been unwilling or unable to pay, leading to disconnection. According to GWSC, very few communities with handpumps are unwilling or unable to pay their bills. Of the 6 574 pumps GWSC maintains, 903 (14%) are out of service for mechanical reasons. Maintenance problems associated with lack of training or repair kits, as well as poor operational handling, particularly by children, have resulted in breakdowns, and many pumps need major part replacements or complete replacement.

Wherever payment default has resulted in disconnection, the impact on the communities is harsh and aggravates the water situation. With the introduction of handpumps and better quality water supply, communities have tended to neglect the maintenance of traditional water systems. In Ashanti, for example, the disconnections occurred in the dry Harmattan season, when traditional water sources are normally dry.

Rural communities with handpumps owe more than 476 million GHC, an average of 73 000 GHC per pump. The problems, which are likely to persist, involve maintenance of the systems in low-income communities. In the past, there has been no financial obligation associated with water supply, so it was taken for granted that there would be no charge for maintenance. The result is that many people will continue to depend on their traditional sources.

The communities do not see any justification for payment of tariffs. Many assume that it is the government's obligation to provide them with water. Some are willing to pay for the cost of equipment only. The argument is that, once installed, the handpumps do not consume any resources or inputs such as fuel, nor are there any renewable processes involved in purifying or improving the quality of the underground water.

New policy perspectives

In 1991, a national rural water-supply and sanitation conference was held at Kokrobite, near Accra, attended by ESAs, major donor agencies, government departments involved in rural development, and NGOs in the water sector. The conference made the following recommendations (World Bank 1991):

• Promote and foster community management of services.
• Give district assemblies a central role in supporting community management.
• Give government a role in promoting provision of service.
• Give the private sector a role (for the first time) in the provision of goods and services.
• Initiate demand-driven programs with self-selection and commitment by communities to enhance sustainability (in other words, communities would have their water resources developed if they could afford the costs of establishment and maintenance).
• Focus on women as users and on the active involvement of women as planners, operators, and managers of community systems.

An important decision was to establish within GWSC an autonomous community water-supply and sanitation department. However, it was not until 1994 that the department was finally set up with a director, staff, and office.

Today the priority directions of GWSC are

• to recover ground lost in urban water supply from the current 76-93%; and
• to upgrade the corporation's new department of rural water, first, to a semi-autonomous body and, later, to a fully autonomous body so that it can concentrate on accelerating rural water development.

The accelerated program in the new priorities will be based on demand by recipient communities and on their capacity to afford and manage the systems, especially their ability to pay operation, maintenance, and replacement costs. Improvements to the water supply will be based on commercial tariffs because of the prevailing economic policy minimizing state responsibility in social services. In rural areas, GWSC's aim is to convert water systems to community-managed services over the next 5 years. The corporation plans to install water-storage tanks at vantage points within all 110 administrative districts of the country as a principal element in its program toward creating what it calls "water security."

Parliament's recommendations

In November 1993, Ghana's Parliament appointed a Committee on Works and Housing to study in detail the problem of safe drinking water, especially in the rural areas, and make recommendations. The committee's report acknowledged that "there are communities that either cannot, or will not pay the maintenance costs, and will resort to the use of muddy water or polluted streams that may endanger their health" (Parliamentary Committee on Works and Housing 1994).

As a result of the committee's report, Parliament made the following recommendations:

• Parliament formally entrusts the district assemblies with some of the responsibility for water supply and management in their communities. In the dry season (December-April), several communities, particularly in the savanna zones, experience severe perennial water shortages because of the drop in water levels. The legislature has strongly suggested that the district assemblies and GWSC provide standby water tankers, which will sell treated drinking water at affordable prices. For cooking, washing, and other domestic uses, the communities can use their traditional streams or dams.
• Parliament proposes damming streams that do not dry up and are close to communities for large arid areas where water is scarce. The dammed water may be treated, or the people may be told to boil or filter it before drinking.
• Parliament proposes "huge underground tanks" in some areas to store rainwater in very large quantities for communities.
• Parliament asks district and metropolitan assemblies to set up "water task forces" to check wastage and pollution of valuable water by children, careless adults, and animals.
• Parliament asks GWSC to design simple and cost-effective underground tanks that could be used in homes, school buildings, clinics, and other public buildings to collect rainwater for drinking.

Program for community ownership and management

Lack of community participation has led to poor operation, maintenance, and sustainability of the water projects. This is mainly because of inappropriate technology, incorrect location of supply systems, lack of affordability, and lack of social acceptability because of "poor" or "wrong" taste of the new water supply or the presence of minerals. In some cases an inadequate survey led to siting systems where mineral content has been detrimental to tooth development in children, as with a community in the Upper West Region. However, it is evident that communities could control and manage their systems and make them work efficiently. The proposition is for communities to take greater responsibility in the financial outlay for the development of the projects and recover much of the cost of establishment and maintenance of the supply systems.

According to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), a community should provide between 5 and 10% of the capital cost of facilities. GWSC proposes that communities provide labour for the construction of hand-dug wells, and the corporation would provide technical assistance and training for maintenance. In a scheme to provide 1600 hand-dug wells over the period 1991-95 and safe water for 40 0000 people in settlements with fewer than 500 people, UNICEF proposes to support these communities with material supplied through GWSC (Government of Ghana and UNICEF n.d.). For instance, it will provide tools and 10 bags of cement (to line the wells and aprons) per hand-dug well, and it will assist communities in purchasing construction material. It will also supply chemicals, such as chlorine, to disinfect the wells. The wells will be sealed to prevent contamination, and the responsibility for maintenance will be handed over to the village or town development committees (TDCs).

UNICEF's perspective involves enhancing community participation in needs assessment, planning, implementation, management, and monitoring and places emphasis on establishing affordable and appropriate technology, particularly hand-dug wells, under standardized and competent technical supervision. Other technical considerations involve training community artisans in construction and maintenance techniques. On the other hand, there are also pressures for community planning, design, construction, and supply of material and equipment to be provided by the private sector.

Key features of community ownership and management include the community's

• having legal ownership and control of the services, including formal agreements with the project agency;
• selecting the level of service it requires, can afford, and can sustain with human and financial means;
• selecting the site for water points;
• contributing real (not token) cash of between 5 and 10% to the capital cost of facilities;
• setting up a committee or board that is accountable for managing the project;
• accepting complete responsibility for operation and maintenance of the water systems, including collection, management, and safekeeping of funds and purchasing the goods and services required for maintaining the system;
• appointing its own caretakers to receive training and tools and be responsible for preventive and simple corrective maintenance; and
• being ready to undertake self-help action to assist with repairs, cleaning, and maintenance of the area around the water projects.

The premium placed on community financial obligation might create obstacles for meeting the set objectives of providing the widest rural areas with safe water. Most settlements have very small populations, and many of these, particularly in the savannah zones, cannot afford the 10 bags of cement required to construct a hand-dug well of the standard and quality proposed for a safe water supply. For example, under the Volta Region Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project, supported by Danish International Development Assistance, communities with populations between 300 and 4 000 must first register with an amount of money (calculated as 100 GHC per person, including children and old people) to qualify for a project (Volta Region Rural Water Supply and Sanction Project n.d.). The community then pays 10% of the construction cost of the needed installation, such as the cost of a handpump for the well. Should the community "without good reason" delay payments of the monies, "the project will move on and assist the next community" that can meet the requirements.

Health could also suffer from the new policies. A 1990 UNICEF study (Government of Ghana and UNICEF 1990) found a resurgence of guinea worm epidemics in northern Ghana after GWSC instituted cost-recovery measures for pump maintenance and higher tariffs. The outbreaks occurred in villages that had potable water and where this waterborne disease had been eradicated. Because the corporation had dismantled pumps or repairs had ceased because communities had defaulted in paying arrears, the people had resorted to drinking water from ponds, dams, and streams.

Case studies

In this section, three village water systems are presented to show the effects of policy-making on water at the community level, the specific nature of the problems of water-stress systems, and how community members, particularly women and children, evolve management strategies and conservation mechanisms for their daily survival needs.

Three villages, Apollonia (Greater Accra Region), Baabianeha (Eastern Region), and Brofoyedru (Ashanti Region), were selected for detailed study. Apollonia is in the coastal savannah zone, and Baabianeha and Brofoyedru are in the tropical rain forest. Brofoyedru, located near Ghana's oldest exploited and largest gold mining industry of Obuasi, has a forest that is rapidly being depleted, whereas Baabianeha has a relatively unexploited rain forest. Brofoyedru lies in a valley of scarps, whereas Apollonia and Baabianeha are in low-lying topography.

The studies, although showing common problems and similarities in the water systems introduced, also indicate some variations in types of systems in the three communities, as well as some differences in water demand and use.

Method of study

Two principal approaches were used for the study and data collection: in-depth interviews using unstructured questionnaires in all three communities, and a focus-group discussion in Baabianeha. Thirty-four people were interviewed, about half of them women. Included in the group were one member of Parliament, two representatives of NGOs (World Vision International and UNICEF), members of the TDCs, three government officials (two from GWSC and one from the Danish Embassy in Accra), a chief (Baabianeha), members of traditional authority, a priest of a traditional religious shrine (Brofoyedru), two school teachers, two cattle ranchers, and ordinary members of the communities. The focus-group discussion in Baabianeha was conducted with a group of four women and three men. In Brofoyedru, a session was held with three young women aged between 22 and 25, including a seamstress' apprentice and an unemployed mother of two.

Apollonia

Apollonia is located 30 km between the industrial city of Tema and Accra. It is a relatively young settlement of migrants, with no distinct ethnic composition, traditional cultural practices, and sociopolitical structures. It was originally settled by people from the Ga-Adangbe ethnic group who were seeking economic activities other than fishing in nearby Kpone. Later, other settlers came, including a few Fulani men who worked at cattle rearing for owners living in Accra and Tema. The main economic activities now are crop farming and livestock rearing (cattle, sheep, and goats). Subsidiary economic activities include firewood cutting, sand winning, small-scale trading and trucking, and some artisanal production.

Traditional political authority has evolved from an age-based leadership system to a system of chieftaincy, which rotates among three families who claim original ownership of the lands. Today, the villagers elect a representative to serve on the Dangbme East District Assembly, which administers the area.

Water sources

The natural water sources for the village, with a population of 975 in 1993, are small streams, two dams, and four ponds. During the 5-month-long rainy season, there is plenty of water, but in the long dry season the streams dry up and the levels in the other sources go down drastically. In the dry season, women and children must walk to the only water source for people and animals, a dam 4 km from the village, to collect water.

The community did not take any measures to minimize the effects of the dry-season's drought, even though they knew that the small streams did not provide a constant supply of water year-round. Pollution from animals and humans competing for water in the ponds and dams was not controlled, and the water was used for bathing and swimming, even though it was also the source of drinking and cooking water. Eventually, the lack of maintenance and management led to the growth of algae and fungi, making the water unsuitable for domestic purposes. The obvious health consequence was an increase in the incidence of bilharzia.

Biogas project

In 1987, the water-supply situation began to improve in Apollonia when a biogas pilot project was implemented by the Ministry of Energy and Mines, with assistance from the governments of India and China. The project has ten 50-m³ biogas plants that run two combustion engines for generating electricity. Twenty-one household biogas digesters, with capacities ranging from 10 to 50 m³, have been installed. These produce approximately 190 m³ of biogas daily for cooking and for heating water in 59 households.

BIOGAS PROJECT AND WATER - The main raw materials for generating biogas are cow dung and water. Because the water supply in the area was insufficient for the biogas project, the Ministry had GWSC construct pipelines to bring water to the community from the main water-supply system in Kpone, which supplies Accra and Tema. Before the project, the community had tried unsuccessfully to have GWSC connect it to the main system, but it could not meet the cost of piped water.

Between 1987, when it was started, and 1992, the project depended on water from dams and ponds. Because large volumes of water were required, the competition between the project and the people for the limited water supply generated considerable hostility toward a project purporting to benefit the community. At the construction stage of the biogas project, women and children were responsible for supplying water to the project from collection points that were far away, adding to an already heavy workload for women. During the operational stage, attendants, who are mostly men, were responsible for supplying water and charging the digesters.

GWSC charges the Ministry for water used in the digesters to generate electricity. Part of the tariffs paid by the users of the energy resources are remitted to GWSC to cover water costs. Individuals may also use water from the mains for domestic use, at a rate of 20 GHC for a 10 L bucket. Should the community fail to pay the rates charged per bucketful, GWSC will disconnect the supply.

The community's role in water affairs involves keeping the dams and ponds free from pollution and uncontrolled use by animals. Although some members of the community know how to keep pigs and cattle away from these traditional water sources, direct responsibility for control and supervision is still vague and spontaneous.

The community holds regular meetings with project technical officers from the Ministry, discharges the digesters, supplies cow dung for the digesters, ensures a supply of diesel fuel for the generators, and maintains the equipment and plants. They check leakages in the gas system and illegal connections to the main, especially by nearby villagers, private construction companies, and others, such as farmers along the pipelines. The Ministry's project team for the energy system is solely responsible for all important matters pertaining to the biogas project and ensures community compliance with the responsibilities assigned them. The new water-supply system and the biogas project are gradually attracting new settlers from the big cities, and there is construction of new homes, with the promise of new economic activities to uplift the community.

Baabianeha

The village of Baabianeha is 22 km from Akim Oda, a commercial and administrative centre. It has a population of 237 (1984 census). It is a farming community with no industrial or commercial activity except for the production and sale of cocoa and occasional trade in other foodstuffs when there is a surplus. The people grow maize, cassava, plantain, and, in recent years, rice for subsistence.

There have been periodic finds and sporadic small-scale mining of diamonds in the swampy forests near the village. However, these deposits have never attracted sustained and commercial investment. A nearby forest has attracted some timber exploitation, but not enough to warrant establishing a local sawmill, although Akim Oda is one of Ghana's largest wood-processing industrial towns.

Baabianeha has been settled for 12 years and is an Akan-speaking community. It has a chief and a council of elders for the indigenous political authority and, as in most Ghanaian villages, a TDC, introduced in the early postcolonial period to lead community development projects. Between 1982 and 1992, the government created a Committee for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR) in Baabianeha. The CDR and TDC work together to oversee mobilization of the community for development projects and activities, usually in cooperation with the chief. The TDC has a number of executing committees. The Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) Committee, made up of four men and three women publicly nominated in a village assembly, is responsible for managing water resources.

Water sources

Baabianeha has three water sources: streams, hand-dug wells, and boreholes fitted with handpumps.

STREAMS - The village has four streams, the Awuku, Akontan, Nkran, and Anyinasu. The villagers mostly use water from Awuku because it is closest, less than 500 m away. People who work on farms outside the village access water from the Akontan, the biggest of the streams. Palm-wine tappers and distillers of the indigenous gin, akpeteshie, also use water from these streams for brewing.

When the dry season is long and severe, men usually dig makeshift small wells in the dry beds of the streams to fetch the water that collects from the high water table. The water from such wells is sometimes whitish from the clay soil. Farming, especially the growing of rice, cassava, and maize, which require clearing of the vegetation, is the principal cause of the steady decrease of water, according to those interviewed. People no longer respect the old rules of keeping the banks and lands along the streams untouched. Five years ago the traditional council of chiefs in the district headquartered at Oda decreed that no one could farm within 460 m of the rivers and streams, but this regulation is not observed.

HAND-DUG WELLS - To solve the water problem, the community, which had no technical knowledge or tradition of constructing wells, sought assistance to tap the high groundwater in the Baabianeha rocks. Support came from the Primary Health Care (PHC) Centre at the Swedru Catholic hospital. The PHC Centre provided technical personnel to locate water tables, supervise construction, and educate the community in maintenance. The centre also donated cement and provided money for the stone and sand required to construct the concrete lining of the well walls.

The community provided labour and some financial support to dig two wells 5 m in diameter. The PHC's material support went to building the well cover, the head, and the apron for preventing accidents and contamination. After the wells were constructed 7 years ago, a youth committee was put in charge of managing and cleaning them, ensuring they were covered, and weeding.

Initially, one well was dug, but the water it provided was inadequate for the whole community. The chief and the CDR agreed that the two sides of the village, demarcated by the short street, would fetch well water on alternate days until the second one was constructed. Traditional belief and ritual required that no one fetch from the well in the direction of the Awuku on Tuesdays, and it was sacrilegious for anyone to defile the water by defying this regulation.

BOREHOLES FITTED WITH HANDPUMPS - Although the wells improved the water supply, the water was still not considered as good as piped water or water from boreholes with pumps. The villagers approached UNDP for assistance to construct boreholes fitted with handpumps. They felt the boreholes would be more hygienic and a more reliable source of water than the two hand-dug wells, which have since been sealed.

In January 1994, two boreholes were drilled, and in March two pumps were fitted. The construction was done entirely by contractors brought in by UNDP and GWSC. For each borehole, the community contributed 60 000 GHC, which was raised over 2 years from adults to pay for the pumps.

After the installation of the distribution pipes, the community was entrusted with managing the new system, in coordination with the village's WATSAN Committee. The committee members are a school teacher, a nominee from the local church, a nominee of the chief, a "concerned" citizen, and three women. All members were publicly chosen or vetted and approved.

A user tariff of 100 GHC per month per adult is collected for the maintenance of the pumps. Everybody is obliged to pay, and no one is allowed to drink from the streams as an alternative to payment. To strictly enforce this the District Assembly is preparing a bylaw making it an offense to use drinking water from another source. At quarterly public meetings, the WATSAN Committee reports on the user fees. Defaulters are reported to the chief. If they persist in nonpayment, they may be reported to the District Management Committee at Oda for possible prosecution in the courts.

The technical maintenance is handled by well-trained mechanics under the District Management Committee. There are five mechanics in the area, and Baabianeha may approach any of two in nearby Awisa or Achiase when it requires services. A WATSAN Committee caretaker, trained for a day at Oda by GWSC technical personnel, handles simple routine mechanical problems, such as oiling the nuts and bolts to prevent rust or ensuring the drains are not choked. The WATSAN Committee also ensures general cleanliness of the surroundings of the pumps and makes sure children do not mishandle or damage the pumps.

The Baabianeha water project was donated by UNDP, with GWSC supervising the technical standards and implementation. However, it is the community that manages and controls the project, as it does not come under GWSC's administrative jurisdiction. The user fees collected are supposed to be kept by the village for repairs and other related expenditures.

Brofoyedru

Brofoyedru is an old village located in a valley of the Kusa scarps in the Ashanti Region in the Adansi District, about 25 km east of Obuasi and near one of the world's richest gold mines. The village has one of the oldest schools in the area and, therefore, boasts of the largest number of educated people in the area, but this has contributed to significant outward migration of young men and women.

The vegetation, once a thick rain forest, has been reduced to a secondary forest by years of exploitation for timber for the mines and by intensive clearing for cocoa and coffee cultivation. The hillsides of the scarps facing the village get lighter in vegetation as one descends. The trend is toward further denudation of the forests, gradually but steadily exposing the tops of the hills to erosion.

The location of the village exposes it to very strong, often devastating winds, which in the last decade and a half have pulled down roofs and walls of the mud houses. The destruction of several houses and the heavy migration of educated people have given the village an atmosphere of dejection, standing in stark opposition to its past glory as a bustling commercial centre from the 1930s to the 1950s. In those days, the main highway between Kumasi and Takoradi, linking Ashanti and the northern sectors of Ghana to the coast and the main harbour southwestward, passed through Brofoyedru. The village had a market and stores and warehouses for the principal colonial commercial houses. In the 1950s, a new road about 4 km away diverted traffic, and the village began to lose its commercial importance. In the 1970s the road became so badly neglected that all major transportation was routed elsewhere, and a journey of 4 h from Accra, for instance, now took more than 8 h.

Water sources

The village has three water sources: streams, the "Henderson Box" system, and boreholes fitted with handpumps.

STREAMS - A number of rivulets and streams and one river flow from the hills of the scarp and pass by Brofoyedru at various distances from the village. Many of these streams and rivulets enter the Gyimi, a sizable river that flows for more than 40 km before entering the Offin River, one of Ghana's major rivers. The Gyimi is the main source of water for the gold industry. It never dries up, although its volume is reduced during the dry Harmattan period.

For day-to-day use, three streams are of importance: the Twaano-a-antwabi ("Twa'bie"), Ahyehyentem, and Oben-ne-oben. They are all used for drinking, cooking, washing and other household purposes, as there is no industrial activity in the community. The people of Brofoyedru rely primarily on the Twa'bie for drinking and use the other two streams as a supplement when the main source is dirty. Because the water is from the hills close by, it is clear and clean and rarely dries up. This makes Brofoyedru a community with a sufficient water supply.

THE HENDERSON BOX SYSTEM - In the 1930s, a British colonial district commissioner contemplated making Brofoyedru the Adansi District administrative capital because of its commercial importance at the time. Surveys of the settlement were made for several purposes, the most important and lasting being an improved water-supply system constructed downstream on the Twa'bie. This stream is an important source of water, flowing from a high waterfall on a rocky cliff in the scarp. It then meanders through a bed of rocks and pebbles and descends gently for about 1.5 km to a spot where water is fetched by the community. About 6 years ago the Engineering Faculty of the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, undertook feasibility studies on the waterfall with the objective of constructing a small hydroelectric project on the stream.

At the foot of the hill near the village, a filtration system was constructed in the 1930s by the European engineers from the mining and administrative town of Obuasi. The respondents interviewed refer to the system as the Henderson Box, although this name is yet to be confirmed from the literature. The system comprises an open reservoir with a capacity of about 273 m³ and a metal sieve to block debris from weeds and trees as the stream empties into the reservoir. Another metal sieve cleans the water as it flows through a 250-mm diameter steel pipe into a smaller (approximately 23-m³) closed reservoir with a large, removable slab on top. Four 50-mm diameter galvanized steel outlets, with steel filters inside the wall, serve as the pipes for collection.

This system produced very clean water. However, the fate of the system is a classic case of mismanagement. Until the 1960s, the responsibility for technical maintenance lay with the sanitary inspectors of the District Council. The community cleared the weeds and periodically desilted the reservoirs, under the authority of the TDC. Desilting, which takes 2-3 d to complete, was done by adult men as imperative communal work. No one in the village knew how to maintain the system, nor did the TDC have the technical know-how to rehabilitate the system. The last cleaning exercise was done in 1992. In recent years the concrete structures sank in because the foundations and walls cracked from lack of maintenance. Water seeped out, weakening the base and the ground around the reservoirs. GWSC received complaints but made no practical response.

The fact that the system still maintains traces of life more than half a century later makes it worth investigating and possibly reviving. The stream continues to flow into the reservoir and by all indications would continue to provide water if the system is rehabilitated. The community respects the TDC regulation protecting the forests at the headwaters in the hills and along the stream from destruction by any activity, thereby preserving the integrity of the stream. Even in its broken-down state, the people still consider the Henderson Box the best source of drinking water.

BOREHOLES FITTED WITH HANDPUMPS - As the reservoir became harder to maintain, the TDC requested an alternative water system for Brofoyedru. GWSC constructed five boreholes fitted with handpumps in the village in 1988 and 1989. Three years after the system was brought in, GWSC sent a bill for 500 000 GHC for the community's arrears for water use. The people contend there was no notification of charges when the projects were introduced, and they expected none. For more than 1 year, four of the pumps have been shut down, disconnected by GWSC for nonpayment of bills. Now GWSC charges 200 GHC per adult per month as water rates. The community claims it cannot pay the arrears and feels no urgency at all about settling the bills and getting the pumps reopened. The people claim that the water from the boreholes does not taste as good as the water they are used to from the reservoir. It is also argued that the tariffs are unjustifiable because, after the installation of the pumps, GWSC did not contribute to the production of the water from the boreholes by providing chemical purification or supplying energy to power the system.

Discussion

Apollonia is in transition toward becoming part of Accra or Tema. Its water-supply system is an indirect outcome of a biogas-energy development project in which the community did not wholly participate. If the Ministry were to withdraw from the project, it is not clear whether the community would continue maintaining it, as it does not own or control any aspect of the water pipelines.

The villages of Baabianeha and Brofoyedru both use boreholes with pump-fitted wells. Baabianeha has a system of local ownership and control that has been successful, in part due to a UNDP donation that reduced economic pressure. The monthly user fee of 100 GHC per adult is yet to prove a problem, but the test will come in 1996, when, during the March-August lean season, people have little income. In Brofoyedru, the investment in new wells means that the traditional technology, the Henderson Box reservoir, has been abandoned. The new borehole system stands unused, an "alien" edifice, because gwsc did not inform the people of their financial obligations when the projects were introduced and did not consult with them to determine their actual capability to meet those financial demands.

Local management issues

In both Baabianeha and Brofoyedru, access to the technicians for maintenance appears to be a problem, as there are only five in the whole district. It would be feasible for a community volunteer to be trained to handle more complex repairs (beyond basic corrective and preventive exercises) to avoid and repair breakdowns.

The problem of conservation for the Baabianeha community lies in how to discourage the continued exploitation and denudation of the vegetation around the streams. This complicated question involves traditional authority in the district and the state, which the people can least influence. Baabianeha's WATSAN Committee adequately represents the village's traditional social order and has the potential to manage and take care of the village's water issues, although results would be improved if there were more women on it.

Upgrading traditional water systems

It seems that abandoning and sealing the two hand-dug wells in Baabianeha was not a good idea. There were shortages of water in the wells and excessive levels of contamination, but it might have been preferable to disinfect, rehabilitate, and reinforce them and strengthen the structures that prevent accidents and contamination. The community would then have had additional sources without significant new investment.

Brofoyedru exemplifies a case GWSC provided an alternative water system but did not take into account the existence of other sources that needed improvement and did not consult the community about tariffs. It is also a good example of how a community, pressed by financial obligations it cannot meet, will revert to traditional sources of water, despite the health risks. Getting water from traditional sources may be acceptable in communities where the villagers have a strong attachment to the stream and are disinterested in hand-dug wells or even boreholes with pumps.

The village also demonstrates the problems of poor education in relation to the quality of the water from the new system. The insistence that the taste of the new water is not up to the quality of the old source and that the borehole water stains enamel and aluminum plates and utensils shows an absence of any serious education about the project. This community's problems with the borehole system may have been minimized or avoided had the suitability of the half-century-old filtration system on the local stream been investigated.

It is obvious that the lack of a clear policy and implementation framework often leads to neglect of water systems, creating stress that affects the kind of water available for rural communities. The case studies demonstrate that, with respect to traditional water resources like streams, rivers, ponds, and springs, local management of ideas, institutions, and practice has been absent or weak. There have been spontaneous efforts to keep the sources clean, but without any studied regularity and without the input of women in the relevant decision-making. Folk songs, stories, myths, and traditional practices could be used to educate the communities in water use, conservation, development, and management and to encourage positive attitudes toward natural water sources.

Alternative technologies

Can alternative water-supply systems that are affordable, acceptable, and safe be developed? Indeed, a number of other technologies could play a greater role in Ghana. Training would, for example, make feasible the introduction of spring boxes, rainwater harvesting, infiltration galleries, and household water filters. Although these technologies are appropriately modest in cost, it must be recognized that they are generally not alternatives, but important supplements.

Despite the success of rooftop rainwater catchment elsewhere, few villages in Ghana today use this technique. Houses in the smallest communities, mostly in the savannah, have thatched roofs. Moreover, annual rainfall in these areas is so low that harvested water could only be significantly useful if the technology is elaborate enough to combine a number of households and to provide sanitary communal cisterns for long-term storage. The opportunity for rooftop catchment is not much better even in those parts of Ghana where rainfall is higher and where aluminum roofing is common. The quality of the aluminum roofs is so poor that rainwater catchment might require reconstructing of the houses. Overall, then, it seems rooftop catchment must await a long-term linkage with reforms in housing design and construction.

For those communities that do not yet have safe drinking-water sources or cannot afford them, a UNICEF proposal provides a realistic and economically accessible alternative:

• Filters and chemical agents should be distributed to communities without wells or safe water.
• Cloth filters should be distributed to people relying on stagnant water, particularly on farms.
• More efficient and affordable filters using sand, charcoal, and gravel should be constructed in homes in such areas.

To strengthen this approach, it will be necessary to study the socioeconomic context within which an alternative water system could be implemented. The nature of the household and of the social relationships, particularly gender and how it affects community relationships and the participation process, needs to be considered. This will ensure the active participation by different actors at different levels of decision-making in the implementation of water systems.

To improve water use and management, there is a need for a systematic education program using various mass media, interpersonal communication techniques, and social occasions (such as festivals, market days, and literacy classes). However, the educational program will only succeed if other factors such as the water system's cost and tariffs are not so great as to militate against receptivity and acceptance.

Conclusions

This study sought to examine the interrelationships between government policy on water, the use of natural and alternative sources of water, the existence of water stress and traditional coping strategies, the involvement of different actors at the community level, and the management of water systems.

It is clear from the study that government policy on water, within the framework of the SAPs, has overlooked the importance to women and children of good sources of drinking water. There has been a shift from providing water as a basic need and social right for rural people to putting pressure on their communities to provide some of the initial financial capital as a prerequisite for obtaining water. In a situation of diminishing incomes, increasing numbers of households headed by women (where there is usually dependence on one income), and continued impoverishment of a majority of the rural people, this requirement makes it almost impossible for communities to get potable water. This has resulted in continued dependence on stressed systems, which has negative implications for the health of women and children. The traditional knowledge of users is usually not taken into account in defining the roles of people in water management, resulting in a lack of commitment among rural communities to comply with a framework designed from the top. The integration of indigenous knowledge into the management of water systems would empower communities to take their lives into their own hands.

The government should review its policies toward social-health issues like water. If health is to be given priority, water supplies to poor communities should be subsidized.

In GWSC's concept of community ownership and management, communities are expected to contribute to the establishment and maintenance of improved water-supply systems. However, the proposition that communities pay 5-10% of the cost of the construction material, particularly for handpumps, should be reviewed, especially for communities with populations below 500. In the dry savannah zone, there are many communities that may never collectively earn enough to spare 50 000 GHC a year.

The role for communities is by no means limited to finance and maintenance. Communities must be involved, from the start, in decisions about which water systems they want, what they can afford, and where the systems should be installed. Such involvement can only improve decisions about the introduction of technology that is affordable and accessible, both in economic terms and in terms of the acquisition of technical maintenance skills.

When localities receive financial and technical support from institutions like UNICEF, their involvement in the various stages of decision-making - assessment, planning, implementation, management, and monitoring - enables them to evolve a good management strategy that can sustain the alternative water system. This approach respects the fact that rural people are aware of their own needs and have indigenous knowledge of managing water for their own use. Participation leads to better gender relations and the improved health of household and community members.

References

Government of Ghana; UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund). 1990. Children and women of Ghana: a situation analysis. Government of Ghana and UNICEF, Accra, Ghana.

_____ n.d. Ghana master plan of operations and programme plans, 1991-1995. Government of Ghana and UNICEF, Accra, Ghana.

GWSC (Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation). 1993. Survey 1991. GWSC, Accra, Ghana.

Parliamentary Committee on Works and Housing. 1994. Report to Parliament. Accra, Ghana.

Volta Region Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project. n.d. Project information booklet.

World Bank. 1991. Water supply and sanitation in Africa: laying the foundation for the 1990s. Proceedings, All-Africa Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Workshop and Water Supply and Sanitation Conference. Vols. 1 and 2. World Bank, Washington, DC.

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