Achieving MDGs and Beyond: CWSA’s 18 years of cooperation in delivering rural water and sanitation

Source: Pauline E. P. Tambro, Chief Public Relations Manager – CWSA

Historically, the provision of potable water for Ghanaians has been the responsibility of public institutions. For instance, Act 310 of 1965, mandated the then Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation (GWSC), now Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) to "provide and manage potable water supply and sewerage services for domestic and industrial purposes throughout the country". Its responsibility included the provision, distribution and conservation of water in Ghana for public, domestic and industrial purposes. The supply of potable water was to both urban and rural Ghana.

The split in the responsibility for the supply of potable water into Urban and Rural came in early 1990s as government took steps to operationalize the United Nations General Assembly declaration of the years 1981 – 1990 as the International Drinking Water and Sanitation Decade throughout the world.  The purpose of the declaration was to ensure that by the end of the decade, nations would have given priority attention to the delivery of water and sanitation facilities to their populace. The Ghana Government, in line with the agenda for the decade, initiated a review of its policies on water and sanitation provision to keep pace with the changing conditions in the country and on the international scene.

In 1987 therefore, a donor conference on water and sanitation was held at the Ambassador Hotel in Accra, at which pledges were invited from donors.  In February 1991, about sixty participants from Sector Institutions and External Support Agencies (ESAs) met at Kokrobite for a Workshop to prepare the grounds for a Rural Water and Sanitation Sector Strategy.  After four years of consultations, a National Community Water and Sanitation Programme (NCWSP) was launched in 1994, in line with the Government’s decentralization policy.

This culminated into the creation of the Community Water and Sanitation Division (CWSD), a semi autonomous unit under the then GWSC to manage rural water and sanitation delivery. After four years of existence, it was deemed necessary to grant complete autonomy to the Division to give greater impetus to its work. Subsequently, the Division was transformed into the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) by an Act of Parliament, Act 564 in December 1998, with the mandate to facilitate the provision of safe drinking water and related sanitation services to Rural Communities and Small Towns in Ghana. 

The agency was charged with coordinating and facilitating the implementation of the National Community Water and Sanitation Programme (NCWSP) which objectives included the following:

• To provide basic water and sanitation services to communities that will  pay normal operations, maintenance and repair cost of their facilities;

• Ensure sustainability of the facilities through community ownership and management, community decision-making in their design, active involvement of women at all stages in the programme, private sector involvement in the provision of goods and services and public sector promotion and support; and

• Maximise health benefits by integrating water, sanitation and hygiene education interventions, including the establishment of hygiene education and latrine construction capabilities at the village level.

The NCWSP adopted a demand-driven strategy which involved communities initiating the demand for the facilities of their choice, based on their demonstrated ability to maintain these facilities. To achieve this, communities, through their opinion leaders, apply to District Assemblies for a grant for the programme.

This demand-driven strategy was to enable the CWSA to obtain the full commitment of beneficiary communities for the ownership and management of facilities; ensure the sustainability of delivered facilities and conform to the National Medium Term Development Plans (NMTDP), which emphasizes reduction of poverty, especially in rural areas; decentralization of governance to local levels; development of human resources; promotion of and support for the private sector and engendering growth of the economy. 

Within the space of eighteen years (1994 – 2012), the CWSA has developed into a national body with offices in all ten regions of Ghana. The Agency, through the decentralized structures at the district and community levels as prescribed in the Act 564, now operates in 18, 870 communities in 165 districts in Ghana and still growing. The vision as contained in its 2013-2017 Corporate Strategy Document is as follows:

“The Community Water and Sanitation Agency aspires to be an effective and efficient facilitator and regulator in the rural water and sanitation sub-sector.”

As the Rural WASH Sector Leader, CWSA has always regarded itself as a highly effective and efficient professional organization which works harmoniously with development partners to in its quest to achieve it vision of delivering sustainable water and related sanitation services to all rural communities and small towns in Ghana. In this regard, CWSA strives always to promote and enhance the cooperation the Agency is enjoying from both its local, national and international development partners in the WASH sector.

National collaboration in the implementation of the NCWSP

In line with its vision to work harmoniously with sector stakeholders and development partners to deliver sustainable water and related sanitation services to all rural communities and small towns, CWSA has over the years engaged in both national and international collaboration to ensure the continuous and effective delivery of its mandate.

At the national level, CWSA works in cooperation with a number of Government Ministries including the Ministries of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Education, Health, Finance, Local Government and Rural Development. The Agency collaborates closely with the Water Directorate of the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH), in policy formulation and review, monitoring and evaluation and co-ordination of WASH activities in the Rural Sub-sector. The Agency also collaborates with the two other key institutions in the sector, namely, the Water Resources Commission and the Ghana Water Company in the extraction of ground water for the provision of point sources and pipe extensions from GWCL main pipes.

As stipulated in Act 564, the Community Water and Sanitation Agency executes its mandate through the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) who are under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD). The MMDAs are responsible for project implementation at the district level with technical support from the CWSA. They are also responsible for the management and coordination of water and sanitation programmes within the communities under their jurisdiction.

The Agency also collaborates with the Environmental Health and Sanitation Division (EHSD) of MLGRD in implementing water related sanitation and hygiene promotion programmes. It must be noted here that the CWSA deals with only water-related sanitation. The MLGRD is responsible for the management of solid waste in the country. The Water and Sanitation Management Teams, (formerly called the Water Boards/WATSAN Committees), participate in the planning, construction, Operation and Maintenance (O&M) of the water facilities. They are trained and assisted by the CWSA to effectively manage communities’ inputs to the project and the long term O&M of facilities.

As is evident through reports by the Guinea Worm Eradication Programme, the menace of guinea worm has been effectively curtailed in Ghana. CWSA has over the years collaborated with the Ghana Health Service of the Ministry of Health, to reduce the incidence of water related diseases especially guinea worm, cholera and trachoma in Ghana through education and the provision of potable water to affected communities. In the same vein, the Agency collaborates with the School Health Education Programme Unit (SHEP) under the Ministry of Education to implement hygiene promotion and the school health programme in water and sanitation in educational institutions particularly at the basic level.

Service delivery

In the area of WASH Service Delivery, CWSA has over the years been collaborating with the Private Sector in the delivery of goods and services. CWSA cooperates with Partner Organisations (POs) and Technical Assistance Firms (TAs) who support the strengthening of community organisational capacity, lead the planning process, and facilitate hygiene promotion as well as establishing community operation and maintenance capacity for a fee. Under the supervision of the Agency’s engineers, Contractors and Latrine Artisans under take constructional work on Boreholes, Hand-Dug Wells, Latrines and Small Towns Water Supply Systems according to specifications and the Standards and Guidelines prescribed by the Agency.

To sustain the life span of the facilities, regular and appropriate maintenance is essential. In this regard, CWSA trains Area Mechanics, Private Firms and individual mechanics on servicing and repairs of facilities. These provide maintenance services for a fee from the beneficiary communities. Obviously, maintenance cannot be done without access to the right spare parts. The Agency collaborates with private sector operators through a national network system to supply parts for standardised pumps. The supply network has been zoned to make the parts accessible nationwide.

Thus one can find spare parts supply outlets in Tamale supplying the Northern sector, Kumasi for the Central sector and Takoradi for the Southern sector. The last but not the least in the national collaborative service delivery chain, are the Consultants who provide technical assistance especially in the areas of training and training materials development.

International cooperation

CWSA’s collaboration with the international partners, better known, as Development Partners, is mostly in the area of funding, capacity building and technical assistances. Development Partners play very important and indispensable roles in Ghana’s water and sanitation delivery. They provide financial, technical and logistical support for the implementation of NCWSP. They also participate in policy dialogue and lessons sharing, monitoring and evaluation and studies on thematic issues.

The Agency also works closely with the NGOs (Local and International) through the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) in providing water and sanitation facilities to communities. Specifically, CWSA is working with the following partners: Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), African Development Bank (AfDB), European Union (EU), International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank, KfW ( The German Bank for International Development), Department for International Development (DfID) – UK, KOICA of Korea, IRC, UNICEF, WATERAID, Ghana, Church of Christ, Plan International, Ghana, World Vision International and COCOBOD of Ghana.

Most of these development partners have been in this fruitful cooperation with the Government of Ghana since the inception of the Rural WASH Sector in 1994.

Benefits of an effective national & international cooperation

Since its inception, the CWSA has always recognized the fact that cooperation in the delivery process and management of water is crucial to ensure sustainable and equitable distribution water, hence the principle “some water for all and not all water for some”.

The Agency has always made strenuous efforts to maintain and nurture the collaboration with its development partners to ensure the flow of the needed funds for investment towards the provision of potable water to its constituents. As a result of eighteen years of effective cooperation between the CWSA and her National and International partners, coverage of Rural Water for rural communities and small towns have been on a steady increase over the years. From 40% in 2000, the national coverage figure rose sharply to 51.7% in 2004 and gradually tapered off to 63.34%, as at the end of 2011.

In line with the 2013 global theme for the World Water Day celebration, - “International Year For Water Cooperation” – which emphasises the importance and need for collaboration in water management, CWSA plans to intensify the already existing cooperation/collaboration between the Agency and its development partners to further accelerate the delivery of potable water to beneficiary communities.

With a high sense of goodwill within the donor community towards the sector, coupled with government commitment to increasing access to potable water as a means of poverty alleviation under the Better Ghana Agenda, the CWSA Corporate Plan for the period 2013-2017, no doubt has an ambitious target of 80% coverage by 2017 which the Agency is committed towards achieving.

The table below presents evidence of the fruitful cooperation between the CWSA and Sector Partners. These statistics also include facilities provided by NGOs and other providers in the sector.

2011 Potable Water Coverage in Rural Communities and Small Towns
Region	No.  of Communities	Population	Boreholes	Hand Dug Well	Pipe Schemes	Limited Mechanised Systems	Rain Harvest Systems	GWCL	Total Pop. Served	% Coverage
ASHANTI	2,830	3,265,624	6,436	886	38	-	3	59	2,466,412	75.53%
BRONG AHAFO	2,707	1,975,833	2,400	425	34	1	-	-	1,104,189	55.88%
CENTRAL	3,224	1,559,278	1,583	259	46	-	3	54	905,839	58.09%
EASTERN	2,771	1,642,518	2,384	1,066	29	-	8	-	995,911	60.63%
GT ACCRA	851	699,545	268	72	8	-	-	-	424,667	60.71%
NORTHERN	3,906	2,151,632	4,026	598	46	39	-	8	1,369,489	63.65%
UPPER EAST	1,724	1,187,524	2,120	512	18	-	-	-	708,259	59.64%
UPPER WEST	926	625,355	1,621	-	17	1	-	-	481,145	76.94%
VOLTA	3,234	1,776,776	2,327	56	126	23	11	167	1,156,347	65.08%
WESTERN	1,766	1,692,083	1,317	454	55	-	-	-	887,463	52.45%
Total	23,939	16,576,168	24,482	4,328	417	64	25	288	10,499,721	63.34%