Context and Rationale

The context and rationale for the reform programme is encapsulated in the numerous research findings which point to the inherent weaknesses in community management of water systems and its threat to sustainability. Baumann, 2006; Van den Broek and Brown, (2015) posited that in spite of the achievements in water services delivery, there is growing consensus that the approach needs to be overhauled. Moriarty et al., (2013) explicitly agreed with a generally held belief that community management is ‘at the beginning of the end’…not principally because community management has failed, but because it is reaching the limits of what can be realistically achieved in an approach based on informality and voluntarism’.

 The above aside,  SDG 6 requires that all households in Ghana have access to safe and on-the-premise water by 2030, making the requirements of the SDGs more stringent than that the MDGs

In order to achieve this objective, the CWSA in 2017 after extensive research and stakeholder engagements took a bold step to embark on reforms to transform its operations for the sustainability of safe water delivery in the rural water sub-sector.

Compelling Reasons Which Necessitated The Reform:

• There is a water management knowledge gap at the district and community levels. Water provision, operation and maintenance is technical and involves application of resources. Therefore, there is need to deploy qualified professionals.
• Many of the water systems cannot provide uninterrupted service to communities as a result of frequent breakdowns.
• Water quality of most systems are not monitored, on a wrong assumption that groundwater which is the most used water source has a constant quality. Even when water quality tests are carried out, its interpretation is difficult for the districts and communities.
• Most water systems are designed over a ten (10) year life and beyond this period, the systems are not expanded to respond to population growth and development of communities.
• Non-revenue water OR Unaccounted for water OR Water Losses is very high. Effort is required to reduce this to the desired 10% maximum.
• The cost of rural water keeps increasing across communities, even much higher than prescribed by the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC), as a result of several unresolved difficulties.
• Ghana’s attainment of lower middle income status has led to a decline in grants/credit to the sub-sector.
• Financing for post construction operation and maintenance is inadequate to guarantee regular follow-ups, repairs and maintenance.
• Continuous cycle of breakdown and rehabilitation with resources that should have been used to provide water systems to ‘first time’ beneficiaries.

Under the reform, CWSA will take the necessary steps to transform the sector, make improvements in water delivery services in all communities and create jobs. The reform also seeks to expand the mandate of CWSA to include the management of Piped Water Systems whilst maintaining the role of providing and managing point source water systems. As a result, the Community Ownership and Management model has been modified from the use of non-professionals to manage water systems to the engagement water systems management professionals. As part of the reform programme, revenue generated from the piped water supply systems will be used to support the operation and management of point water systems as well as sanitation and hygiene promotion.