Development and the environment

A WaterAid project in rural Ghana uses two technologies for constructing hand-dug wells: concrete-lined and block-lined. The concrete-lined method requires metal shuttering and some external supervision. Athough the block-lining method uses locally manufactured blocks and more community involvement, it is not much cheaper than the concrete-lining method. All members of the community are involved in well construction. Men do the digging, provide the manual labour and often make the decisions. Women collect the sand and the gravel, and prepare the food for the technical teams. Local artisans are trained to provide technical guidance. Hand pumps are provided if the community is willing to pay the equivalent of US$ 60. The actual costs of handpump equipped wells including all capital expenditure and health education programmes is US$ 2,860 per well. The community pays 60 per cent of the handpump maintenance costs, the remaining amount is subsidized. The sustainability and replicability of the project approach are discussed.