Decentralised rural water and sanitation delivery in Ghana

摘要

By 1992 ONLY 2.2 million (28%) of the 9.4 million rural population of Ghana had access to improved water supplies'. However, almost 30% of the improved rural water supply systems were not operational, thus reducing effective coverage to about 20 %. For rural sanitation only about 6% had access to either flush toilets or bucket latrines. The approach adopted was supply driven with virtually no community involvement in the delivery and management arrangements. The then Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation was responsible for safe water provision in the entire country. Because of the urban bias and rural deprivation policies in the provision of rural infrastructure services when handled by one organisation, the government created a Division within the GWSC to focus on accelerating coverage in the rural areas and small towns of the country. The process of reforming the water sector especially the rural water supply culminated in the creation of a separate public agency charged with the responsibility of increasing access to safe water in the rural areas of Ghana. The broad objectives were to shift the sector from the supply driven to the demand driven approach based on the decentralisation approach by introducing community management and ownership and eliciting significant private sector involvement with public sector agencies playing facilitation roles.