District
assemblies are unable to control water service delivery in their localities
because they are allowed to exercise authority without the power to determine
spending priorities, says a report by Water Aid.
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| Many Ghanaians have to rely on untreated water daily |
“Decentralisation
of service provision to local government in Ghana has not been coupled with the
decentralisation of funds, leaving district assemblies disempowered and unable
to set their own agenda on water and sanitation,” said the report titled Keeping Promises: Why African Leaders Need Now to Deliver on their
Past Water and Sanitation Commitments.
The
report reveals that bureaucracy also hinders agencies from providing water
services to small towns and villages. “The Ghanaian rural provider, Community Water and
Sanitation Agency [CWSA], highlights how difficult project approval processes
delay the release of funding from donors.”
The “Keeping Promises…” report,
a synthesis of five case studies on financing for the water, sanitation and
hygiene (WASH) sector, provides in-depth analysis of budgeting, spending and
funding gaps on WASH and identifies bottlenecks that are common across five
countries – Ghana, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Uganda. The case studies
were commissioned by WaterAid and produced by Development Finance
International.
When
disaggregated, a case study component on Ghana, which is titled: Financing of the water, sanitation and
hygiene sector in Ghana and uses data spanning 2007 to 2011, presents
several insights, including that Metropolitan, Municipal and District
Assemblies (MMDAs) would require more autonomy in order to make water and
sanitation interventions count.
For
instance, there is a need to review the guidelines on the utilisation of the
District Assemblies’ Common Fund (DACF) to ensure assemblies have discretion to
spend more on water and sanitation. “A review of the guidelines is required
that would still give the Assemblies autonomy but within a restricted ring
fence that would ensure the utilisation of adequate amounts to increase water
and sanitation provision to their communities,” said the Ghana Case Study.
Released in February 2013, the
report provides basis for reaching out to national governments and donors to
double-up their cooperation in order to scale up the provision of sustainable
water and sanitation services and falls in line with the dedication of this
year’s World Water Day (WWD)
celebration to cooperation around water.
According to UN Water, WWD 2013 which falls today, March
22, is dedicated to co-operation, a reflection of 2013 being the International
Year of Water Cooperation. The UN outfit argues that good management of water
is especially challenging due to some of its unique characteristics: “it is
unevenly distributed in time and space, the hydrological cycle is highly
complex and perturbations have multiple effects. Rapid urbanization, pollution
and climate change threaten the resource while demands for water are increasing
in order to satisfy the needs of a growing world population, now at over seven
billion people, for food production, energy, industrial and domestic uses.”
It
adds: “Water is a shared resource and its management needs to take into account
a wide variety of conflicting interests. This provides opportunities for
cooperation among users.”
In
this regard, the WaterAid Ghana case study calls for improvement in
coordination and full subscription to the aid-effectiveness agenda. “This
case study shows a sector with a large number of donors, operating on terms and
conditions specific to their own projects and priorities. Transaction costs for
national governments are high and financial absorption of donor funds less than
national allocations. Real progress on access levels, equity and sustainability
is dependent on donors significantly improving the effectiveness of their aid
to the sector.”
On the other hand, government must review the
level of autonomy and the guidelines system in order to promote prioritisation
for delivery of services by MMDAs. This story was written for Public Agenda to coincide with the celebration of World Water Day, which falls today, March 22, 2013.
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