Waiting for the Water to Run: Ghana’s Urban Water Problems

December 07, 2005
By: Gabby Kalaw with contribution from Florence Gbolu

Auntie Adjoa lives in Tabora, one of the fast-developing areas on the outskirts of Accra. She is one of the people who built up the community, and has been in the area for close to 12 years. Despite living in Ghana’s capital city, Adjoa’s area does not have proper water access.Her neighborhood is one of the many in Accra that rely on water tankers for their water needs, and that lack a secure source for water. Adjoa and her neighbours are subject to the whim of the unregulated tanker operators, and must pay whatever prices the operators ask. “I have to spend about ¢10,000 on water in the morning and another ¢10,000 in the evening.” Adjoa said. According to her, water from the nearby well costs ¢300 per bucket while the tanker’s pipe borne water costs ¢1000, or if they’re lucky, ¢700.With a connection, water costs could be as low as ¢80 a bucket. Auntie Adjoa sells kenkey in area, a food made with maize and water.At 4:30 in the morning she wakes up to start preparing kenkey. Two of the people living with her go to fetch water, about 250 metres away from their home. More than a third of Accra’s population suffers hardships similar to Adjoa’s. Water is life, and they are being forced to pay an unreasonably high amount for it. According to WaterAid, the international non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to provision of safe water to the poor, 75% of Accra’s residents do not have 24 hour access to water. A further 10% have no access to water at all. WaterAid Ghana’s Advocacy Manager, Mohammed Abdul-Nashiru, said that because many people are living on unimproved lands and illegal grounds, the Ghana Water Company (GWCL) is unable to connect them to water. This leaves many people reliant on private small water enterprises (SWE’s), like sachet water providers and water tanker.“The SWE's are like human pipes,” Said Abdul-Nashiru, “It’s only through them that some populations are able to get water, and yet they are not regulated. They charge whatever they want which is not good for the poor, and you cannot vouch for the quality of water they deliver.”Adjoa’s area is one of those unimproved lands. “We applied to the water company to supply us with water, but were told the lines had not reached our streets and area; more so they said the gutters have not been constructed. We have to wait because if we have to connect from the other streets it will cost us large sums of money.”Many people will more likely rely on sources that they are familiar with, like wells, rather than rusty tankers or other questionable receptacles. Adjoa though, must buy her water from the SWE’s. And because so many people sell kenkey, business is not moving as fast as it used to. Water takes away a lot of her earnings.”“I hardly make the sales I used to,” she said “After taking water out of my money, I still have to buy firewood, vegetables and feed my family, and I’m virtually left with nothing at the end of the day.”The World Health Organization standards for water delivery and access suggest that every individual should have access to 45 liters of safe water per person. According to WaterAid, households in some areas of Accra have access to less than 10 litres a day.According to a survey the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission carried out in 2000-01, the connected poor actually spend less than 5% of their income and use more water (35 litres per capita) than their counterparts who depend on the alternative suppliers (15 litres and 12% of household income).WaterAid Ghana defines the urban poor in terms of water access as “those who must fetch water by the bucket.”But even those who are connected to the water grid often suffer from unsafe water. Many water pipes are often broken and risk contamination. In other urban areas, diseases like guinea worm or cholera from the rural surroundings can creep into the water system if it is not maintained properly. “The water that is supposed to give them life can then inadvertently leads to their death,” pointed out Abdul-Nashiru. Coverage of the urban sprawl is not the only challenge in providing safe, secure water in Ghana’s cities. Financing for water projects has also been a constant struggle.“Financing is weak, and potentially explosive because it is largely donor funded,” said Abdul Nashiru, suggesting that the donor funds cannot be relied on in the long run. “The government has not demonstrated enough commitment to dealing with the water situation in the country,” he continued. “Yes, the government has indicated that water is one of its priority areas… but in our opinion, once you prioritize a particular sector, you demonstrate it with financial commitment.”WaterAid’s reviews show that water is receiving close to the least in government spending. In the government’s budget, spending on water ranked last - well behind education, agric, and even rural electrification. Clean water is far more essential to life than all of them.In a review of poverty reduction spending among African nations, Ghana was second last ahead only of Zambia, with only 3.5% of its PRS spent on water.The Ghanaian government has yet to even implement the lifeline tariff, a subsidy to guarantee that the poor would have access to water.-The Urban Water Project-Having recently announced a new contract with the Dutch company Vitens and the South African company Rand Water, the Ghanaian government now hopes some private sector management will begin to alleviate the country’s water problems.Under the Urban Water Project, the government via the Ghana Water Company (GWCL) has entrusted the management of the Ghana water supply to the Vitens/Rand consortium. It wants to expand the reliable supply of safe water in the urban areas; insure that low income consumers gain access at affordable prices; and ensure the sustainability of the system through cost recovery.“The Aim of the project is to eventually have every Ghanaian connected to Ghana water so that they may have access to safe water,” said Enamil Ashon, Public Relation Officer for the Urban Water Project Unfortunately under GWCL’s arrangement with the Vitens/Rand consortium, Adjoa and other residents of peri-Accra will continue to be out of the service area for some time. Under section 3 of the contract, Vitens/Rand is only obligated to provide services and maintenance within the current service area. Any expansions must be initiated by GWCL.Ghana’s Millennium Development Goal for urban water is to provide access to70% of the population by 2015. To achieve this Ghana would need to provide 5700 households a month with access.Once again, part of the problem is cost. Ashon said that it would take 1.5 billion dollars at one go to solve the problems overnight, or an investment of 105 million dollars a year for 15 years.“The Ghana government only gives 35 million dollars a year to [GWCL]. It’s insufficient,” stated Ashon. “Even with the Urban Water Project, we are nowhere near solving the problem… it doesn’t mean everyone will get water after five years.”The National Coalition against Water Privatisation (NCAWP) is a lot more skeptical of the Urban Water Project’s privatisation. In a press statement, they felt that “All the claims that the poor will be served are completely unfounded.”According to the NCAWP, private operators focusing on cost recovery have too much incentive to increase prices. “It is profits they look to, not people’s health,” said Al-Hassan Adom, the movement’s Southern sector Coordinator. The press statement pointed out that one of the ways to increase non-revenue water is to cut off those who are too poor to pay, and that Tanzania’s government was forced to drive out the British Multinational, Biwater, for not servicing the urban poor.WaterAid, on the other hand, has yet to take a position on the contract and its effect on the security of the water supply. Abdul-Nashiru said, “We are still looking over the contract, but whatever Ghana’s arrangement should be, it should not overlook the needs of the poor”In response to the track record of privatization, Ashon said that in other countries, they did not stick to the contract, and nobody was paying attention to it. He suggested though, that the government will want NGO’s and others to come on board.“Here, in our system, the contract is going to be adhered to,” said Ashon, “We have to put pressure on the private operator to observe the tenets of the contract, and that is where we need the NGO’s to ensure that the private operator does what it is supposed to do. If it does that, we’ll have a perfect system.”