The Role of Non-Governmental Sector in Community Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Technologies and Services in North- Western Ghana

Abstract

Despite the Sustainable Development Goals which have been adopted since September 2015, researchfindings on sectoral achievements of the gaols are inadequate. This study ascertained the approaches,effectiveness, implications and challenges of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and OrganisationalDevelopment as a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), in promoting access to water, sanitation andhygiene (WASH) through its water for resilience project in rural communities of the Lawra Municipalityand Nandom District of the north-western corridor of Ghana. A before-and-after study design with mixedmethods research approach was used, and theoretically dictated by the Malongza’s model. Sample sizesof 400 for ex-ante evaluation and 260 at the ex-post evaluation stages were used. It was found that theintervention improved WASH technologies and services, provided schools with vegetables, equippedwomen with livelihood opportunities and reduced diarrheal diseases, but challenged by implementationdeadlines. Joint public and private sector interventions to make WASH services sustainable in ruralcommunities were recommended.

Social Aspects of Groundwater Use and Management in the Wa West District

“…Selection of relevant texts for literature from the internet was aided using the Boolean search terms. By this, combined keywords related to the specific research objectives, using AND, NOT and OR as operators were used in the online search to generate the required literature for further interpretation and synthesis (Bukari et al, 2023).Examples of search terms used in this study were the uses of groundwater, groundwater governance and management in the rural communities, accessibility of groundwater, affordability of groundwater, and livelihood effects of groundwater use. Both primary and secondary data sources were gathered and analysed based on these thematic areas or search terms woven around the research objectives.…”

“…Grigg (2016), also examined the social aspects of water management, but his focus was on collective action in water service management rather than groundwater issues. In Ghana, Bukari et al (2023) investigated water technologies in the Lawra Municipal and Nandom Districts of the Upper West Region of Ghana, but their study was not focused on groundwater, but rather general water, sanitation and hygiene technologies and the activities of the non-governmental sector in the provision of such infrastructure, which satisfies the 'enterprise' component of the definition of infrastructure provided by Beeferman and Wain (2019). Adank et al (2013) also investigated the status of rural water services in Ghana, and identified mechanised boreholes, hand pumps and dug wells as rural groundwater point source infrastructure.…”

“…How the governance and management of groundwater resources in conformity with policy provisions is achievable by an institutional framework and the effectiveness of their roles were ascertained in this study. Previous research findings on these aspects by Bukari et al (2023), were about the role of stakeholders in Ghana's water sector in general, and not only groundwater. This study prioritised only institutions that are relevant to groundwater management.…”

“…In other words, it is about the political, social, economic, and administrative systems and practices that influence the use and management of groundwater. The institutional framework in Figure 4 reflects the triangulated and cumulative outcome of the various sources of data, modified from Bukari et al (2023). The stakeholders in groundwater management for rural communities in Ghana include all those indicated in Figure 4, which also explains their roles.…”