Sustaining water supply through a phased community management approach: lessons from Ghana’s “oats” water supply scheme

Abstract

Water sector reforms in Ghana and in other developing countries resulted in the adoption of the community management approach for water systems in an effort to ensure better management and service delivery. However, community management is also plagued internal differences, paucity of technical skills, and insufficient management experience. This article presents a case study of a successful community management system in Ghana that utilized a two-phase comanagement period before a full transfer of management responsibilities to the four communities. The first phase of 3 months was a more intensive comanagement system under which the communities teamed up with public agencies and a private firm to manage the water system. This enabled the communities to acquire hands-on management experience and also tap needed skills from external agencies before a second phase of 3 months characterized by gradual withdrawal of private agency support, and a simultaneous measured assumption of higher responsibilities by the communities. Communities thereafter assumed full management responsibility of the water system and have since then posted significant successes in financial management and operations of the system such that some profits have been generated, there is regular water supply and the system operates without major technical hitches. This strategy illustrates the fact that successful community management system is possible if local capacity is adequately strengthened with external support prior to assumption of full community control of water supply systems, and if assumption of responsibilities is pursued gradually.

Participants or customers in water governance? Community-public partnerships for peri-urban water supply

“…To be sure, CBNRM approaches are no panacea in the rural areas where their relative costs and benefits remain uncertain (e.g., Blaikie, 2006;Dressler et al, 2010;Zulu, 2008). Still, while the few studies conducted in urban areas show some early promise on water-supply goals and challenges on broader social goals (Vasquez, 2004;WorldBank, 2006;Jimu, 2008;Opare, 2011;Marston, 2014), major gaps remain in how community-based water management plays out in peri-urban areas, and in particular, the potential of cost-recovery-based Water User Associations (WUAs) in Sub-Saharan Africa to improve access to water.…”

Perfil dos artigos sobre controle interno no setor público em periódicos nacionais e internacionais

“…Um exemplo de investigação que explora casos de sucesso é o estudo desenvolvido por Opare (2011), que, a partir de um estudo de caso, apresenta um sistema de gerenciamento Ilse Maria Beuren • Vinícius Costa da Silva Zonatto comunitário de água bem-sucedido em Gana. O autor chama a atenção para problemas importantes relacionados com a gestão dos serviços públicos, destacando questões pontuais.…”

“…Adicionalmente, investigações sobre casos de sucesso podem auxiliar na compreensão de fatores que contribuem ou inibem o ambiente de controle (Opare, 2011).…”

Community-level mechanisms and strategies for managing sustainable water supply systems: lessons from Bongo district of northern Ghana

“…The paper specifically focuses on how the integration of community level participation and decentralization concepts of local governance in the management of water resources can optimize sustainable water supply to households in rural Ghana by drawing lessons from Bongo district of Ghana. Fundamentally, a proper approach in the management of community level water resource systems in the long-term ensures sustainable water supply to households (Yeleliere et al 2018;Kelly et al 2017) and remain an important component of bringing sustainability to water utilisation (Opare 2011;Distanont et al 2017). Managing sustainable water supply successfully at the local level means operating and maintaining a water supply system on a day-to-day basis so that the system continuous to work and supply water as planned (Msuya and Lalika 2018;Okpara et al 2018).…”

“…Similarly, the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (2009) notes that there is acute shortage of portable water in Ghana, especially in the Northern Region, where about 40% of the population rely on unimproved sources of drinking water. In this context, indigenous community level management of water supply systems has increasingly become necessary and an important part of the national program for sustainable water supply and development (Yeleliere et al 2018;Foli et al 2018;Opare 2011). As part of the guiding principles adopted under the New Delhi Consultation in 1990, a number of international development organisations have drawn policy-makers attention to strengthen local institutions to implement sustainable water management programs and practices (World Bank 2004).…”