Water and sanitation experts on Friday met to review innovative management models designed under the Tripartite Partnership Project (TPP), for water, satiation and hygiene services to the
urban poor in Ghana.
The three-year collaborative approach involving the Ghanaian and Dutch partners was also expected to support the creation of an enabling environment in terms of policy and regulation necessary for these models to be widely scaled up.
Participants discussed a District Water Supply Scheme (DWSS) that was being piloted in the Dangme East and West Districts in the Greater Accra Region and the North Tongu District in the Volta Region.
Mr Eugene Larbi, TTP Team Leader, defining the scope of the project, said it involved two phases involving the establishment of a national level structure, carrying out initial mapping of existing situation with water service delivery, documentation of existing experiences, identification of promising pilot areas and the development of tools for piloting.
He said the second phase would consist of piloting and documentation of lessons learned and include activities such as the establishment of learning alliance platforms at the local and national levels, capacity building as
well as testing and refining of models.
Mr Larbi explained that even though the programme would mainly look at water supply, it would also focus on sanitation and drainage, establish multi-stakeholder platforms at both the local and national levels to serve as a central tool for ensuring stakeholder involvement in project planning and implementation.
He said the DWSS was presently the biggest community managed small town water supply scheme in Ghana serving over 129 communities and 18
institutions in the three districts.
It also served a total of over 115 people, but an innovation was added
to this scheme by introducing private partnership through a Private System
Operator (PSO), that ensured that the District Assemblies remained the
owners of the facilities.
He said the Water Supply Development Board (WSDB) had the oversight responsibility for the overall management of the system including monitoring the activities of the PSO and the Watsans.
The Watsans are intermediaries charged with the responsibilities of selecting and supervising water vendors within the communities and also
ensuring the payment of water bills to the PSO.
Mr Larbi explained that despite the increase in revenue under the scheme, challenges such as frequent burst of pipelines on the main
transmission lines and reduced water consumption during the rainy seasons resulting in an increase in cost of operations and reduced income
respectively had been identified.
He said monthly allocation for WSDB operations was also considered to be inadequate as it was to pay for the transportation and sitting allowances of Board members.
"Information flow in the current management model is also lacking giving way to distortions and misinformation," he said.