News from Ghana
News items from Ghana on the WASH sector.
WASHCost Ghana on Direct Support Cost (DSC)
WASHCost Ghana
WASHCost Ghana, Triple-S, and additonal sector working groups are working together to produce a report on the costs of providing sustainable support for WASH services. These costs are referred to as Expenditure on Direct Support (ExpDS) or Direct Support Cost (DSC).
Capital maintenance—the sucker punch you did not see coming
WASHCost Ghana
Capital maintenance (CapManEx) is the punch on the jaw that you didn’t see coming. It is the knock out blow that lands you on your back with little prospect of getting up in time to beat the count. Though CapManEx is economics and not boxing; and the blow is metaphorical, not physical—the hit is still just as damaging. If you own a car, petrol prices or annual service costs are probably not what destroy your budget and morale. What defeats you and your wallet is most likely having to pay for the costs of fixing unexpected engine failure, and dealing with the mechanic as he tells you that it costs US$ 800 for repairs.
Ghana water sector looks for mutual funds and insurance to cover costs of repairs
WASHCost Ghana
The Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) in Ghana is considering a combination of insurance coverage options and mutual funds between villages to secure money for future repairs and maintenance of water systems in rural areas. Vida Duti, IRC Ghana Director explains in a video.
Ghana assesses costs of providing effective support to community water services
WASHCost Ghana
Director of WASHCost Ghana, Dr. Kwabena Nyarko, says that budgets to support rural communities who manage their own water supplies are “woefully inadequate”. Read about the problems that village WATSAN committees face and what WASHCost Ghana is doing to help alleviate these issues.
Conflicts over payment - a threat to the sustainability of water and sanitation systems
WASHCost Ghana
Sustainability of water and sanitation systems is under threat. Community members want facilities but are not ready to pay for their servicing and maintenance. WASHCost Ghana looks at two communities where toilet and water facilities are under stress due to unwillingness of users to pay for the long-term maintenance of facilities.
“Area mechanic takes pride in keeping communities afloat”
“I love what I do as an area mechanic because in my own small way I ensure that community boreholes are constantly working, providing regular supply of water to the people to improve their standards of living and their health.”
Water from formal and informal sources; different uses for different people
A woman fetching water from a formal source - borehole fitted with handpump
There are 21 communities surrounding the Lake Bosomtwe, the biggest natural lake in Ghana, of which Abono, in the Bosomtwe District of the Ashanti Region is one. The community has two main sources of water for its population of 1,467 people. The formal source is a borehole fitted with a handpump, provided by the District Assembly in 1998, and the informal source is water from the lake. The inhabitants in this community depend on the lake for fishing and some farming activities as their means of livelihood.
WASHCost Ghana undertakes validation data with communities
31 Oct 11
WASHCost Project Ghana has undertaken a validation exercise to check with communities on research into water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) activities. The exercise was to cross-check facts gathered during the research stages of the project and to seek community inputs into some of the findings in the community reports.
Latest briefing notes and presentations on life-cycle costs at the Third Ghana Water Forum
At the Third Ghana Water Forum held in Accra, 5 - 7 September 2011, WASHCost presented research findings, new briefing notes, and the country coordinator discusses the way forward. Mr. Eugene Appiah-Effah, a WASHCost Ghana Research Officer presented on the topic ‘Cost of rural and small town water service delivery in the Bosomtwe District’.
Publications on life-cycle costs in Ghana are now available
Read the new series of briefing notes on “Life-cycle costs approach for WASH services that last”. It highlights findings on the life-cycle costs and levels of service delivery in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector in Ghana.
