Oyibi water: Just one pesewa more

You cannot buy much for one pesewa: it takes 100 of these little coins to make one Ghana cedi which is worth just about half a Euro. So it takes two pesawas to make one European cent, a coin so small that it has virtually disappeared.

But when the price of an 18 litre bucket of water rose by one pesewa – from 2 to 3 pesewas - in the Oyibi area of Ghana (about 50 kilometres from Accra) at the start of this year it had an impact. For the first time since the Oyibi Area Water Scheme was launched four years ago the Board noticed a decline in the demand for water from those with household collections. “Maybe they bath once a day instead of twice day,” said Angelina Adogla-Bessa, assistant manager of the Scheme.

She says that the price rise was made inevitable by the steep rise in costs – particularly the cost of diesel to drive one of the two boreholes that supply water to more than 6,000 people in nine communities. There has also been an increase in the cost of repairs with pipe breakages becoming more common. She puts this down in part to the rapid increase in constructions works in the area with more heavy lorries driving over the pipelines.

Charity makes her living selling water

In the village of Kpone Seduase, Charity makes her living selling water from the tap stand in the centre of the village and she hopes for the sake of her one year old son Stanley and herself that demand does not start to fall from this public source of water. She has ambition to return to college and train to become a nurse, but this is currently a dream beyond her means.

She keeps 20% of whatever she takes as a water vendor and is considering opening a bank account so she can save her money better: 5% of the take goes back to the village water committee and the other 75% goes to the water board. From this share the board pays salaries and meets bills. The rest is divided 10% for hygiene and sanitation promotion, 20% for routine replacements and 70% into the bank. In the past this meant a healthy profit for reinvestment, but last year for the first time the Board made a loss.

Water seller Charity in Kpone Seduase village with the pump technican (left) and Cyrille Amegnran, WASHCost country coordinator for Burkina Faso who was one of the party visiting the village. Photo: Peter McIntyre 

Little bags of water sell for 5 pesewas for just a half litre

When WaterAid did a community report card in this village in 2008 they found that there was some resentment that they had to pay for water that came from a borehole in their own village and was then piped around the area through 15 kilometres of pipeline.

One young woman – Rose – uses the water from the pump only for drinking and cooking. For all other purposes she returns to the traditional village pond. And this is not uncommon – the average use of water according to the board is only four cubic metres of water per person per month – well below the total needs of community members.

In Kpone Seduase the scheme is also affected by a visible increase in prosperity. This village has electricity. There are a few cars parked outside the homes. And in the little village shop there are the ubiquitous little bags of water that sell for 5 pesewas for just a half litre. Is this water better than water from the borehole? Probably not. But as in other parts of the world, decisions on where we get our water are a mix of the need for health, hard headed decisions about cost, and lifestyle aspirations. The cost of water has gone up by one pesewa – the complexities of water are much harder to fathom.

Peter McIntyre