CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The availability of clean and sufficient water supplies for household and industrial use has frequently been used as a yardstick for assessing the level of socioeconomic development and health condition of human populations. For the past three decades, clean drinking water has been a priority in development. In 1959, the Twelfth World Health Assembly launched the Community Water Delivery initiative with the goal of increasing water supply in rural communities. By the end of the 1970s, the United Nations (UN) had called for ongoing international efforts to provide clean water and sanitation to all people in poor nations. The provision of safe and adequate water supplies for domestic and industrial use has often been used as a yardstick for determining the level of socio-economic development and health status of human communities. Clean drinking water has been a concern for development thinking for the past three decades. The Twelfth World Health Assembly initiated the Community Water Supply programme in 1959 with the aim of improving the supply of water in rural communities. By the end of the 1970s, the United Nations (UN) called for continued international efforts to bring water and sanitation to all people in developing countries. In November 1980, the UN General Assembly designated the 1980s as the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade. During this period, more than a billion and half people were provided with access to safe drinking water and nearly three-quarters of a billion were given access to sanitation (World Bank, 1992b). Many governments and NGOs have strived to provide potable water supply to many communities in developing countries. This is evidenced by the numerous news reports on the commissioning of new water supply facilities (that is, boreholes and wells fitted with hand-pumps) in developing countries. It is said that "water is life" and the level of government commitment to the supply of potable water to as many communities (particularly rural communities) as possible can not be underestimated (Ntow, 1997). In Ghana, the percentage of the rural population with access to safe water at the start of the new millennium (year 2000) stood at 46.4 percent. This figure further increased in 2005 to 51.7 percent (Daily Graphic, 2007). However, the question becomes, how do rural communities build and maintain their communal capacity to generate adequate income and to manage cash flows such that the water supply facility can be self-sustaining? This has led to debates as to whether rural water supply facilities should still be managed by the government or whether they should have a considerable amount of local autonomy (that is, management by beneficiary communities).

Thus, since the 1990s, Community Management has become the acceptable strategy for ensuring sustainable water supply and sanitation schemes. The Community Management Approach (CMA) allocates responsibility for ongoing management of water supply to the community of users. This means that the community, usually by means of a water committee or alternative Community-Based Organization (CBO), is responsible for managing maintenance activities to ensure that the water service continues to operate on a sustainable basis. The process of restructuring and transformation of the water sector in Ghana began with the establishment of the National Rural Water and Sanitation Committee, which was commissioned to look into the sector and come up with solutions or recommendations that would help solve the problems the sector faced at the time (CWSA, 2003). Based on the recommendations of the National Rural Water and Sanitation Conference held at Kokrobite, Accra in May 1991, the Community Water and Sanitation Division (CWSD) was established within the then Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation in March 1994 (CWSA, 2003). The establishment of the CWSD followed the signing of an agreement between the Government of Ghana (GoG) and the International Development Agency (IDA) of the World Bank, which represented the interests of external development partners. The CWSD became a semi-autonomous entity known as the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) after a bill was approved in Parliament in the last quarter of 1998 and president assent was given on 30th December 1998 (CWSA, 2003).

In 2000, the second phase of the National Community Water and Sanitation Project (CWSP-2) was initiated with the support of a World Bank IDA credit of US $21.9 million. The project built on lessons learned from the first Community Water and Sanitation Project (CWSP-1), and adopted a large scale decentralization approach in the planning, implementation, and management of water supply and sanitation (WSS) services in Ghana. The development objective of the CWSP-2 was to increase access and achieve effective and sustained use of improved community WSS services in villages and small towns in Ghana. The CWSP projects were aimed at solving the problem of water scarcity and the sustainability of water supply facilities in rural Ghana. However, after close to fifteen (15) years of the implementation of several management bodies, the issue of managing the maintenance of water supply facilities still remains a problem in rural water provision.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

One of the ongoing challenges in Ghanaian rural water delivery is how to assure the long-term viability of water supply systems. Inadequate maintenance financing is one of the key reasons why the majority of rural water projects in developing countries are not sustainable. The Builsa District has 225 boreholes, 46 hand-pump wells, and 218 open wells. The majority of these water sites have been managed by the community. As a result, the community is solely responsible for the operation of the water facility, with little or no help from the District Assembly.To ensure effective community management, the facility implementing agency (usually a donor agency, government or NGO) together with the District Assembly usually selects and trains water and sanitation committees and facility care takers (comprising of a male and female) in each community. However, after several years, the problem of managing the maintenance of these water supply facilities still exists in the region, particularly in the Builsa District. According to the 2003 Community Water and Sanitation Report of the Builsa District, about 43 percent of the hand-pumps and bore holes in the district were either not functioning or recorded a poor performance rate. The consequence is that communities return to the use of their old, unwholesome sources of water whenever there is a break in service from the boreholes and wells. Such conduct negates the health and socio-economic objectives upon which such water projects were executed.Thus, against this backdrop, this study seeks to examine rural water supply facilities and their maintenance management in the Builsa district, Ghana.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study is to assess the management arrangements for the maintenance of rural water supply facilities in the Builsa District.Specifically, the study seek to:

1.  Assess the capacity of the institutions involved in the maintenance of rural water supply facilities in the Builsa District.

2. Determine the level of community involvement, especially women, in the process of managing the maintenance of the water supply facilities.

3. Assess the willingness of communities to pay towards the maintenance of the water supply facilities.

4. Examine the funding system as it pertains for the maintenance of the water supply facilities.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION

1. What is the capacity of the institutions available both at the district and community levels for effectively managing the maintenance of water systems?

2. What is the level of participation of communities in the management of the maintenance strategies put in place?

3. How are communities involved, particularly women, in the planning, designing and implementation, including monitoring and evaluation of management systems for the effective maintenance of the water supply facilities?

4. What is the level of community members‟ willingness to pay for the maintenance of the water supply facilities?

5. What funding sources are currently employed for the maintenance, and what are the alternative sources of funding available?

1.5 SIGNGINIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The information gathered from the study on the situation in the district will be useful to the district Community Water and Sanitation Agency, the District Water and Sanitation Team, the District Assembly and non-governmental organizations working in the rural water sector, particularly in the Builsa District, and will lead to policy formulation and a review of their management strategies. Secondly, the information also provides a basis for evaluating the activities of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency, the District Water and Sanitation Team, NGOs, and the contributions from beneficiary communities in the district. The study helps provide practical solutions or remedies to the problems of managing the maintenance of rural water supply facilities, particularly in the Builsa district. Finally, the study is useful for academic purposes, by way of providing a platform for discussion and learning by students in the area of managing the maintenance of rural water supply facilities. It will form a baseline for further research to be carried out on managing rural water supply facilities in Ghana and beyond to ensure the sustainability of rural water projects.

1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study focused on managing the maintenance of rural water supply facilities in the Builsa District. The hand-pump communitiesand institutional contribution to ensuring the maintenance of water supply facilities as well as the mode offinancial mobilisation and financial management for pump maintenance and repairs were the focal points of the study.

1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The major limitation was the distances and poor road network between the traditional divisions sampled for the study. The hand-pump communities were several kilometres apart from each other with poor road networks, and hence resulted in a high cost of transportation in terms of fuel and maintenance cost to run the motor bikes used on the field.The researchers had to travel to far places where good and modern libraries were found. Again, the researcher could not get to all the locations at the scheduled time. This caused repeated visits, first to apologize for the lateness and secondly to fix another appointment. In spite of all those challenges, the researcher did his best.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Rural: Rural areais a place  in which there is a low ratio of inhabitants to open land and in which the most important economic activities are the production of foodstuffs, fibres, and raw materials. 

Water Supply Facilities: Water facility means all facilities, land and equipment used for the collection of water, both surface and underground, transportation of water, treatment of water and distribution of water all for the purpose of providing potable, sanitary water suitable for human consumption and use.

Maintenance : The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure, and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installations.

Management: Management is the coordination and administration of tasks to achieve a goal. Such administration activities include setting the organization's strategy and coordinating the efforts of staff to accomplish these objectives through the application of available resources.

REFERENCE

Bannerman, R. (1993). Maintenance of hand dug wells, boreholes and pumps in Ghana, in Proceedings of the Accra Conference on Sustainable O&M of Rural and Urban Water Supplies in Ghana, Kokrobite Accra.

Essaw, W. (2001). Managing the maintenance of rural water systems in the Central Region of Ghana. Unpublished, A thesis submitted to the Centre for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast.

Evans. P. & Appleton, B. (1993). Community management today: The role of communities in the management of improved water supply systems. The Hague: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.

Henry Kangah (2009) Managing The Maintenance Of Rural Water Supply Facilities In Ghana retrived from repository Africa.

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