From Water to Electrification, Watsan Committees Promote Development

From Water to Electrification, WatSan Committees Promote Development GHANA WASH | Ghana PROJECT WASH Project | www.ghanawashproject.org In the still-rural outlying areas of the Abensu WatSan Committee WATSAN COMMITTEES Greater Accra Region, lower land and Models Financial Management & HOW THEY WORK housing prices attract individuals and Abensu’s watsan committee has families seeking affordable accom- seven members, including Julianne modations. Housing and new settle- BUILDING SKILLS Okine, who serves as treasurer. Active ments sprout up in advance of nec- Initial five-day training and later refresher leadership, community participation essary services like water, sanitation trainings build capacity in these areas: and time availability were key factors and electricity, and the irregularity ▲ WatSan roles and responsibilities for membership, Julianne says. Two ▲ Community ownership management and even nonexistence of these basic current members served as leaders in ▲ Understand how the facility works services create health and quality of the previous watsan committee when ▲ Water, sanitation, hygiene links life challenges. Abensu shared a borehole with its ▲ Record keeping neighboring community, and one ▲ Financial management The Ghana WASH Project, under the member is a community opinion ▲ Community reporting district assembly’s direction, targeted leader. The rest were active commu- ▲ Teamwork 15 remote communities throughout nity members who earned their place ▲ Gender in water and sanitation Greater Accra for water improve- through community nomination and ments in 2011. One was Kuntunse vote, she says. COMMITTEE RESPONSIBILITIES West, a young community, and an- ▲ Conduct watsan, community meetings. other was nearby Abensu, an older Abensu received a mechanized bore- ▲ Brief community regularly, share ideas. community but still in need of im- hole, which consists of a raised water ▲ Raise and manage funds. proved service access. In collabora- tank on top of an existing borehole, ▲ Keep records, money and repairs. tion with Rotary International and a ▲ Supervise construction contractors. with a submersible pump linked to a local NGO partner, the project ▲ Control pump use, water distribution. groundwater source. Using electricity, formed and trained water and sanita- ▲ Organize pump maintenance, repair. water is pumped up from the water tion (watsan) committees, then pro- ▲ Hire outside mechanics as needed. source to the plastic tank and trans- vided a borehole, improved sanita- ▲ Organize site cleaning, maintenance. ferred to a series of ground-level ▲ Lead hygiene, sanitation education. tion and hygiene education. faucets from which individuals fetch ▲ Promote open defecation-free space. their water, about 20 feet from the ▲ Monitor, evaluate development. Watsan committees form the corner- overhead tank. The mechanized stone of facility management in a borehole has an electricity meter COMMITTEE MEMBER POSITIONS community and require active leader- attached. The mechanized borehole ▲ Chairperson ship and participation. The work is can provide water for the more than ▲ Secretary voluntary. Members include women, 1,000 community members, but re- ▲ Treasurer who already have a high stake in the quires community investment for ▲ Community organizer facility’s future, existing leadership, sustainability. ▲ Hygiene promoter and active community members. ▲ Pump caretakers (2) Women manage water access at the Broken-down boreholes, abandoned household level, including daily fetch- for lack of funds for repairs, are a ing, transporting and storing water common challenge in the water sec- for household use, so institutionaliz- tor. This underscores the importance ing women's participation in watsan- of the committee’s financial manage- level management can be essential. ment role. It requires mobilizing and Leaders provide authority and com- sustaining community contributions munal respect, and active community and accounting for, collecting and members have strong experience savings these funds. It requires the engaging with their fellow residents. perspective of planning for the future The stories of these two communities preparing for repairs that aren’t demonstrates the everyday chal- needed yet, so that when they are lenges residents in communities like needed, the community can afford these experience; they also show the them. potential for community-level management in supporting the sustain- In the original training for the com- ability of water resources, as well as mittee, “fund mobilization was not a wider community improvements. very new thing,” says Lawrence Ofori- 2 | Ghana WASH Project | www.ghanawashproject.org In less than two years, Abensu’s watsan committee has earned more than 2,000 Ghana cedis (US$967). “We can go beyond that,” Julianne says. Julianne Okinne, Abensu resident and watsan committee treasurer. Addo, Behavior Change Agent with fee collection systems. In month of a firefighter with the National Fire the Ghana WASH project. “Except June, the community fees totaled 253 Service. The proximity of a new home that perhaps they had not sat down Ghana cedis. “We can go beyond to his station in Nsawam meant a to identify all fundraising mechanisms that,” Julianne says. shorter commute. Land was cheap; that were available…and the fact that Kuntunse West was still undeveloped they get to realize that it is necessary With these funds, the community has land, Richard says, with fields sepa- to raise funds.” been able to pay for necessary re- rating his home from the Accra- pairs for their borehole. They fixed Nsawam main road. His home, a two In Abensu, residents needed to raise the borehole pump once already and -room house, was the first. “At that fees for both future borehole repairs the standpipe four times (due to time, there was nobody at the area, as well as electricity costs associated regular wear and tear), costing 1,300 nobody around, there was no build- with the mechanization. They settled Ghana cedis (about US$ 628.50). ing around here,” he says. on a pay-as-you-fetch system for their facility, and they agreed to pay In a large notebook, Julianne details Homes weren’t the only thing miss- 20 pesewas (10 cents) for 10 liters of line by line each financial gain and ing. “There was no water in the area,” water, and cheaper corresponding expenditure. She collects each day’s he said. He sought assistance from prices for smaller amounts. “We pay-as-you-fetch earnings from the the municipal assembly, but to no based the prices on the private ven- pump caretaker, and records it avail. After a few years, he dug his dors who also sell water,” Julianne against any allowances or expenses, own well. “I had to [dig for] my own says. “Our price is a bit lower than along with the day’s balance. At the water,” he continued. “It hadn’t gone [private vendors], that is one thing we bottom of each page, she totals the so deep, because [we] hit stone. considered.” They also collected fees revenue for that month. She also Though there is water inside, there through a pay-as-you-dump system manages the bank deposit book, with was not enough for us.” at the community refuse site. each deposit evidenced by a pink- colored carbon copy sheet. The Ghana WASH Project provided a Julianne is in charge of all financial borehole for the community in 2011, activities for the borehole. “I collect The committee has held two commu- and since then, Richard and the rest the daily sales from the borehole and nity meetings to present its account- of the watsan community have man- make sure to keep the records of it,” ing records. The next community aged its operations. The watsan com- she says. “I release money if there’s meeting is planned for August 2013 mittee, with Richard at its head, is money needed for repair works, for as part of the community’s Homowo active, and the committee uses a fee payment of electricity bills, and I festival, an annual thanksgiving cele- collection system to raise funds for make sure the money is also depos- bration. future repairs. ited at the bank.” Bringing Light to Kuntunse West Unlike Abensu, Kuntunse West didn’t In less than two years, the watsan Richard Agbenyo and his wife were have electricity access. “Around us, committee raised more than 2,000 the first to call Kuntunse West home. there was electricity, but in our area, Ghana cedis (US$ 967) through their That was eight years ago, and he was there was no electricity,” Richard says. 3 | Ghana WASH Project | www.ghanawashproject.org “We also wanted to also have electricity.” Getting electricity means con- Kuntunse West now not only has water necting the community to the na- access but also two transformers that bring tional electricity grid, and installing individual household connections. light to the community. It is an immense The process requires a formal re- quest to the Electricity Company of success demonstrating the community and Ghana (ECG), the nation’s power utility, and the process can take the committee’s commitment to improving years. their space. Last year, they started organizing just as they’d done to manage their wa- on Nsawam to get their view on how ECG officials and engineers first came ter. best we can do this,” Richard said. out to map and chart out the whole Muhammad adds that theirs was just community. Then there was a delay. “We organized the people in the one of more than 120 communities On one occasion, the community was meeting,” Richard says. Almost all of at the time that was appealing to enticed by “private workers,” Mu- the 360-member community resident ECG to be added to the electricity hammad says, who offered to short- association came together and de- grid, but they still submitted the com- cut the lengthy formal process. cided they wanted light. They re- munity’s application. They had to quested that members of the watsan collect contributions to pay for the “Some people came in, some private committee like Richard and his fuel to transport the ECG officials and workers, and said ‘Oh, give us this grandson Muhammad be involved; engineers back and forth between job, we’ll do it in three months’ they even made Richard the chair- their offices and the community, and time,’” Muhammad recounts.

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