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BACKGROUND

The Community water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), initiated policy reforms in the Rural Water and Sanitation Sub-sector in 2017, with the aim of changing the management of water supply services from the existing Community Management to professionalized management model. The change in policy was triggered by recommendations gathered from various Stakeholders engagements and available research findings in the sector which pointed to the fact that the Community Management Model has not been efficient enough to ensure sustainable management of water supply infrastructure which government and its development partners have committed huge investments into providing. The initial engagements based on a concept paper led to the development of a Framework for the Reform which was also presented to sector stakeholders for validation at the national and regional levels.

THE REFORM PROCESS SO FAR

As part of the process, a Cabinet Memo was subsequently submitted to Cabinet by the CWSA through the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR) for consideration for approval towards the amendment of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency Act, 1998 (Act 564). The purpose of the required amendment is to transform the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) into a utility service organization, with focus on application of innovation and professional skills in the management of water systems to achieve sustainability. In November 2019, Cabinet gave its approval for the CWSA policy reforms. This paved the way for the next stage of the reform process which involved the development of a new Community Water Services Policy (CWSP) based on which the amendment of the Act 564 will be made to transform the CWSA from a facilitating Agency to a new utility organization called the Community Water Services Authority (CWSA). This amendment will enable the CWSA to directly manage the over 1022 Small Towns Pipe Water systems dotted across the country.

THE NEW COMMUNITY WATER SERVICES POLICY (CWSP)

The new Community Water Services Policy has been aligned with Government’s vision for the Sub-Sector as enshrined in the Water Sector Strategic Development Plan (WSSDP), expressed as 'all people living in Ghana have access to adequate, safe, affordable, reliable and sustainable water services, and practice safe sanitation and hygiene'.The formulation of the CWSP is based on discussions held in multi-level workshops, and extensive consultations with key stakeholders at national, regional, district, sub-district and community levels in the Community Water Services Sub-sector. The purpose of the CWSP is to provide policy measures and define the implementation arrangements required to support the achievement of the government’s vision for the sector as stated above. The policy also provides direction and guidance for water services provision and supports decision-makers and stakeholders in determining “how things are done” and "who does what". Most importantly, the amendment of the current CWSA Act, Act 564, will be based on the CWSP.

GOAL AND OBJECTIVES

The goal of the sector is to ‘improve access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene as a means to improving living standards of people’.

The objectives are:

·         To achieve universal coverage for water and sanitation services by 2025.

·         To ensure the sustainable financing of investments, operations and maintenance of water services.

·         To ensure that water sector institutions have the required expertise, information, equipment, logistics and financing to perform their roles efficiently and effectively, in a transparent and well-coordinated manner.

·         To ensure sustainable harnessing, utilisation and management of water resources

GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF THE NEW COMMUNITY WATER SERVICES POLICY

The new Community Water Services Policy will be guided by eleven principles. These are:

Ensuring the fundamental rights of all people without discrimination to safe and adequate water to meet basic needs
Meeting the social needs for water as a priority, while recognizing the economic value of water and the goods and services it provides
Recognizing water as a finite and vulnerable resource, given its multiple uses
Integrating water resources management and development with environmental management in order to ensure the sustainability of water resources in both quantity and quality
Precautionary principle that seeks to minimize activities that have the potential to negatively affect the integrity of all water resources
Coordinating water resources planning with land use planning
Enhancing subsidiarity in order to ensure participatory decision-making at the lowest possible level in society
Encouraging solidarity and expressing profound human companionship for common problems related to water
Recognizing the relevance of international cooperation for sustainable development of shared basins
Recognizing the greatest common good to society in prioritizing conflicting uses of water
Removing the barriers of equity in service provision and issues of gender equality, vulnerabilities and inclusion that assures that no-one is left behind.
 
FOCAL AREAS AND STARTEGIC ACTION

Nine focal areas and strategic actions have been identified under the CWSP. These include; Access to Potable Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Finance, Public Private Partnership (PPP), Knowledge Management, Research and Innovation, Pro-poor Support, Climate Variability and Change, Sustainability of Water Services and Water Safety.

FUNCTIONS OF THE NEW CWSA AS OUTLINED IN THE CWSP

Broadly the new Community Water Services Authority (CWSA) when established, will be the lead Rural Water and Sanitation Sub-Sector  utility Organisation. It will provide and manage safe water supply and related sanitation services to rural communities and small towns and will coordinate all actors and interventions in the sub-sector including NGOs and Private Sector water services providers.

It’s specific functions will include the following:

Be the asset holder and manage all community water systems provided with public funds 
Set standards and guidelines for the delivery of water supply in rural communities and small towns
License private sector entities for commercial community water supply
Mobilise funding from public and private sources for community water services delivery and related sanitation programmes in rural communities and small towns.
Encourage private sector participation in the provision of safe water supply and related sanitation
Promote PPP arrangements for the funding, construction and management of water systems
Coordinate data collection efforts and dissemination for planning and policy decisions.
Create enabling environment for knowledge management and learning in the sub-sector
Provide support, in collaboration with MMDAs and NGOs to local private entities such as Area Mechanics, in handpump management and related sanitation services.
Stock and distribute handpumps spare parts for point water systems
 
CONCLUSION

The CWSA policy reform is on course and though there are challenges, hopefully, the amendment of Act 564 will be passed before the end of 2021 to strengthen the Agency to scale up. To ensure adequate understanding of the new policy and this stage of the reform process by the staff of the Agency and sector stakeholders, the Chief Executive of the CWSA, Ing. Worlanyo K. Siabi, together with a team from the Head Office have kick-started regional engagements on the policy. The maiden engagement was launched in the Volta region and carried out in the Eastern and Central regions from the 22nd to the 26th of February, 2021.