Water supply and sanitation in Ghana
| Ghana: Water and Sanitation | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Data | ||
| Water coverage (broad definition) | 86% (2010) | |
| Sanitation coverage (broad definition) | 14% (2010) | |
| Continuity of supply (%) | 25% in Accra | |
| Average urban water use (liter/capita/day) | n/a | |
| Average urban water tariff (US$/m³) | GHS3.01/m3 (US$0.76/m3) | |
| Share of household metering | n/a | |
| Share of collected wastewater treated | about 10% in Accra | |
| Annual investment in water supply and sanitation | US$0.7 per capita | |
| Financing | About 90% development assistance | |
| Institutions | ||
| Decentralization to municipalities | In rural areas: Decentralization to districts, since 1994 | |
| National water and sanitation company | Yes: Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) | |
| Water and sanitation regulator | In urban areas: Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) | |
| Responsibility for policy setting | Water Directorate within the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing | |
| Sector law | various | |
| Number of urban service providers | 1: GWCL | |
| Number of rural service providers | more than 400 community-managed piped systems | |
The drinking water supply and sanitation sector in Ghana faces a number of challenges, including very limited access to sanitation, intermittent supply, high water losses and low water pressure. Since 1994, the sector has been gradually reformed through the creation of an autonomous regulatory agency, introduction of private sector participation, decentralization of the rural supply to 138 districts and increased community participation in the management of rural water systems. An international company managed all urban water systems since 2006 under a 5-year management contract which expired after achieving only some of its objectives. The reforms also aim at increasing cost recovery and a modernization of the urban utility Ghana Water Company Limited. (GWCL). Another problem which partly arose from the recent reforms is the existence of a multitude of institutions with overlapping responsibilities. The National Water Policy (NWP), launched at the beginning of 2008, seeks to introduce a comprehensive sector policy.
The water supply and sanitation infrastructure is insufficient, especially in rural areas and concerning sanitation. There are substantial discrepancies between access data from various sources, partially because of different definitions being used by different institutions that are providing access data. According to the Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation of UNICEF and WHO, access to water and sanitation is as follows:
According to the United Nations 2015 MDG report, the target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water has been attained in Ghana. The share of non-functional supply systems in Ghana is estimated at almost one third, with many others operating substantially below designed capacity. Moreover, domestic water supply competes with a rising demand for water by the expanding industry and agriculture sectors.
About 80% of the urban population in Ghana have access to safe drinking water. However, disparities exist between urban and rural safe drinking water access. According to the Ghana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey of 2011, urban dwellers are more likely to have access to safe drinking water than the rural dwellers at 91% and 69%, respectively. Consequently, dependency on unsafe water sources is higher in rural areas. The turbidites of most local surface waters in rural areas are greater than 200 NTUs (nephelometric turbidity units) and contain high microbial and fecal contamination, putting children and the rest of the population at high risk for water-related diseases. Compared to the rest of the country, the three northern regions of Ghana are particularly deprived of clean drinking water, with one in ten children dying before their fifth birthday due to some water-related illnesses. In the main Northern Region of Ghana alone, 32% of the 2.5 million residents lack access to improved water sources and must often resort to contaminated drinking-water. Regarding sanitation, only 14% of the total population of Ghana are using an improved sanitation facility as of 2010.
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