Tracking functionality for sustainability

This paper has been prepared for the 2011 annual review conference of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) held in Kumasi in April 2012. It is intended to address the theme of the conference “Tracking Functionality of WASH facilities – A key to Sustainable Services”; and seeks to build a case for functionality and service monitoring as a bed rock for not only increasing ever higher levels of coverage, but ensuring that these provide sustainable and adequate levels of services. It focuses on the case of Ghana and provides a reflection on how past approaches to water supply have dealt with the challenge of sustainability, before considering the lessons learned and visions for the future. The last three decades have seen substantial investment and vigorous attempt to increase coverage of globally, about 700 million people gained access to improved water supply services between 1990-2008 but many challenges remain. As back far as the 1990’s estimates suggested that, at any given moment, 30-40% of rural water systems in developing countries were not working. This situation has not changed much. Studies from various countries indicate that between 30% and 40% of systems particularly hand pumps either do not function at all or are working at sub-optimal levels. The figure below provides a global picture of the situation in sub-Sahara Africa. It shows data from an RWSN study which showed that in a sample of 20 countries the average non functionality rate was 36%. [authors abstract]

This is part of the Triple-S (Sustainable Services at Scale) Water services that last-project.

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