Clean water is critical to survival, and its absence can impact the health, food security, and livelihoods of families across the world. Although our planet has sufficient freshwater to achieve a regular and clean water supply for all, bad economics and poor infrastructure can skew supply unfavorably. If you are searching for a project based on Clean water, you are in right place. This project is designed to improve access to potable water and sanitation facilities, maximize the health benefits of the people and reduce the poverty level in identified project communities. It will enhance the health of the people and promote income and economic activities as a process of reducing poverty, especially in rural areas. The major achievement expected from this project is to create access to good drinking water and sanitation facilities for the population in the district.
Background Information of Project
The Context of Ghana: As one of the 5 thematic areas of xxxxxx, Water and Sanitation Plan forms essential part of the strategy under Human Resource Development and Basic Services.
In Ghana the water and sanitation situation, which is beset with problems was not given the needed attention in the past especially communities in the rural areas. There are varied sources of water supply for domestic and other uses. The main sources of water supply in Ghana are open wells, ponds, rivers, spring water and streams, boreholes and pipe born water systems to a few towns and cities. Most of the communities and settlements do not have access to good drinking water. To reverse this situation, an Act was however passed in December 1998 to mandate the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) to facilitate the provision of portable water and related sanitation services to rural communities and small towns, leaving the big towns, urban areas and cities water and sanitation issues in the hands of Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL).
The Community Water and Sanitation Agency has worked hard in the past 12 years with the mandate given them to improve the water and sanitation in rural Ghana. They have done this through the setting up of District Water and Sanitation Teams (DWST) in some of the District Assemblies throughout Ghana. With support from the central Government and some donor agencies like DANIDA, the water and sanitation coverage in the rural Ghana has presently improved to about 46.4% with this programme. The present situation must therefore be improved to the level that would make the Ghanaian population healthier.
The context of Project District: Twifu Hemang Lower Denkyira District, which is located in the central region of Ghana, is our project area. The district had a population of 107,787 comprising of 49,106 males and 58,681 females (2000) census report. The annual growth rate of the district is 1.8% with that of the Regional and National rates are 3.1% and 2.1% respectively, this implies that the population density for the district, which has increased steadily over the years and was projected at 120,750 by the end 2005. The district is typically a rural one with a landmass of 1,199qs. Km. The District is divided into 4 sub-district and 8 Area Councils for the purpose of easy local government administration. There are 1,510 fast growing communities with settlements springing up day-in and day-out. Two of the major towns in the district namely Twifu Praso and Hemang are having population figures of 9,011 and 6,179 (2000 census report) respectively. The existing water coverage in the district is very minimal. 69.2% of the population has no access to potable water. The people therefore have to rely on ponds, streams/rivers, and open wells etc. for their source of water for domestic purposes. The situation is worse in the hinterlands communities where accessibility is a problem. The sanitation problem in the district is even worse as compared to water. The current coverage is 16%. There are inadequate public latrines, improper disposal of night soil, inadequate household latrines, and chocked gutters, indiscriminate disposal of refuse in the communities, dirty surroundings, lack of equipment to convey solid waste and lack of slaughter house facilities in some of the big towns.
With the guidelines provided by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) to the District Assemblies in Ghana, a five-year (2006 – 2010) District Water and Sanitation Plan (DWSP) was developed by xxxxxx which is the local government authority in our area. The Plan is intended to address the water and sanitation problems in the district by creating access to not less than 70% of the total population by the end of 2010. The essence of the plan is to provide potable water and to ensure environmental sanitation as well as to promote personal hygiene in an integrated manner.
This is to enhance the health of the people and promote the income and economic activities as a process of reducing poverty especially in the rural areas.
The plan of this project is therefore aimed at working towards the achievement of the goals and objectives of the District Water and Sanitation Plan, which has not presently achieved the 70% set target.
Specific Location & Context of Project Communities: The project location is xxxxxxx. The project would take place in 16 deprived communities selected. All the communities selected are farmsteads with a total population of 5000 people, ranging between 250-300 persons per a Community.
The standard population threshold for Hand Dug Well and Borehole given by the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) are 150 and 300 persons respectively. Therefore taking 5000 people being the total population of the identified communities requires over 30 Hand Dug Wells or 16 Boreholes if we are to adopt any of the technology. Considering the problem of accessibility to most of these communities, we have adopted the Hand Dug Wells technology, which is highly recommended by the CWSA for the project communities selected. The sanitation coverage of the selected communities is far below 10%. Most households do not have latrines and therefore have to rely on a few public ones provided by the Assembly or the communities themselves.
In communities where there are no such (KVIP or Vault Chamber) latrines, people usually defecate in the free range. At the same time, 6 primary and 2 junior high schools in the identified project communities do not have access to acceptable type of toilet facilities. This condition has contributed to the spread of excremental diseases like cholera and diarrhea affecting the people especially children. Considering the effect of the problem on the lives of the people especially on women and children, the target groups of this project are women and children in communities where women spend a lot of time fetching water especially in the dry season for domestic use and communities with high incidence of water born diseases, which turn to affect women and children the more in the absences of water and sanitation facilities in these communities.
- Result of Baseline Study in Target Communities: The available study on the water and sanitation situation in the district indicates that, the most common potable water facilities are the Bore Holes. The total number is 190 some, which were completed as far, back in 1970 and are mostly concentrated in the larger communities. Out of the number, some of them are broken down and need to be rehabilitated. Data collected from the district also indicates that there are 66 Hand Dug Wells, 6 Pipe System and 2 Pedal Flow System all broken down. The study also shows that only 30.8% of the total population in the district that have access to the existing facilities mentioned above.
- Data collected on the Public and Institutional latrines in the district also indicates that, there are only 23 public and 23 institutional latrines existing in the district. Most of these latrines are KVIP and a few are Vault Chamber Toilets. The study further revealed that most households who do not have toilets in their homes rely on the public and the institutional ones. Currently 91% of the schools in the district do not have access to acceptable toilets in their schools and only 16% of the total population of the district that have access to the existing toilet facilities.
- Socio-economic Status of Direct Beneficiaries: The entire population of 5000 people living in the 16 identified project communities and settlements shall directly benefit from the success of this project. The majority of them are women – 1,280 and children – 2,880 who spend most of their productive time in search of water, and being the group of people mostly affected when there is an outbreak of any waterborne diseases. The people in the 16 communities identified for this project including the men – 840, depend mostly on peasant farming for their livelihood. Currently all the 16 identified project communities and settlements do not have access to potable water and sanitation facilities. A minimum of 250 persons per a community was used as criteria for the population threshold to select the communities that would benefit from the 20 Hand Dug Wells to be provided as a first phase instead of 34 Hand Dug Wells. The health status, community’s commitment and willingness to contribute and participate in the project implementation were also part of the selection criteria used.
- Indirect Beneficiaries & Social Groups: Indirect beneficiaries of this project shall include Local Artisans who shall help to construct the water supply and sanitation facilities according to design specifications. These Local mechanics and Latrine Artisans shall be train to carry out some of the activities and to play one role or the other in the successful implementation of this project. The District Water and Sanitation Team of the Assembly, which is the local authority, the district Environmental Health Department and The District Directorate of Health Services shall all benefit indirectly because our activities would complement their work in the district.
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