Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Clean water for all: the impossible challenge?

Ghana, and Accra in particular, is said to be filthy. Having travelled in many West and Central Africa countries, I can say that relatively speaking, the situation is not that bad. But then, nobody wants to compare themselves with the worst situation possible and anybody seeking self-improvement should set ambitious aims and work out a plan to achieve them gradually. The same goes for countries.

I am always a bit uneasy about recommending the masses to apply basic principles of hygiene when I know full well that tap water is not a given in this country and even not in its capital city. Contrary to our honoured Vice-President Mahama, I don't think Accra's filth is a laughing matter:
Vice President Mahama, making a joke about the level of filth in Ghana, ...(1)
This widespread filth is a public health hazard, Mr Vice-President. I think it's unfortunate that you find it funny.


My main topic today was however not rubbish collection (or the lack of) but a related hygiene-threatening concern: the lack of running water in Accra. According to the operating company itself (Aqua Vitens Rand Ltd (AVRL), a private company contracted by Ghana to manage the distribution of water), the network was never designed to supply the Accra Tema Metropolitan Area (ATMA) as it is now.
First, average water supply in ATMA is about 82 million gallons per day from Weija and Kpong Treatment Plants. In contrast, demand is over 150 million gallons per day, which leaves a deficit of nearly 70 million gallons per day, even in the best of times.(2)
This means that even working at capacity, tap water production can only satisfy about half of the demand. That is, "in the best of times" which, as we all know, are not a daily occurrence.


The operating company goes on to explain that they are not the only ones to blame for the acute shortage we witness day in, day out in Accra:

When there’s a mere five-minute power-cut, it takes at least five hours to restore water flow. Therefore the impact of these occurrences on water supply is enormous.(3)

How many five-minute power cuts have you suffered since, say, December 2008? I chose this December 2008 mark because it is when I started buying water every week for my household. We haven't heard or seen the water flow at all from mid-December 2008 till March 2009. Since then, we have had two days with water flowing from the mains. If this explaination is right and is not just a diversion exercise engineered by AVRL, it means that each tiny power cut sends us five hours back in the queue at the pump, figuratively speaking. Since I've read this press release a few months ago, I've been more attentive to power cuts and noted that, on average, we've had 2-3 cuts a day, of 2 to 20 minutes usually, sometimes up to 6 hours.


The implications of this persistent shortage are several. The first one is that our youth spend an inordinate amount of time fetching water. I am sure you noticed the youth with 4 empty containers is wearing school uniform shorts. Energies that could be much better used doing something productive or improving their education are wasted every day.

The second one is that there is no way hygiene can prevail when it is so expensive (not only in financial terms, but also in terms of time and energy spent) for people to procure enough water to wash their hands as much as is recommended, have water available to flush toilets, wash and rinse the dishes properly and thoroughly, etc.


Another scandal is that even public hospitals experience water shortages. AVRL maintains that they provide continuous supply to public health facilities, and that any shortage is due to the hospitals' installations themselves.

“AVRL does not ration water to Korle Bu due to the strategic importance of the hospital,” Nana Yaw Barnie, communications officer for AVRL’s Accra-West Region.

“The water problem at Korle Bu on Monday was caused by the hospital’s difficulty in pumping water from its own private water reservoir to the various blocks,” he said.

“When AVRL supplies water to Korle Bu, it first goes into a reservoir from where the hospital itself pumps to the locations it deems appropriate. This has always been the practice,” Barnie said. “And on Monday there was enough water in the hospital’s reservoir.”(4)
I had occasion to visit the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where newborns in need of intensive care are treated) at Korle Bu in February, 2008 and saw Polytanks sitting in the corridor leading to it and orderlies filling buckets from these tanks to supply NICU. Due to personal painful moments, the idea didn't occur to me to take pictures of the scene.

Reading AVRL's press release, though, it seemed to me that this problem was restricted to Korle Bu teaching hospital. I'm therefore surprised to read that an association of Indian women in Accra felt necessary to donate a water tank to another public health center at Ridge.
The president of the association, Mehek Mohanani, during the presentation, said the group paid a visit to the hospital sometime ago and realized that the water reservoir serving the Unit was not adequate.(5)
Certainly if the water supply had been continuous and adequate no such charitable deed would have been necessary?

Our country wants to develop and leave behind the "least developed nation" status to become an "emerging country", and even one of the new "tigers" of the 21st century. We cannot seriously hope to achieve this without being able to ensure proper sanitation for all. Health issues are and will continue to be in the foreseeable future one of the factors that impede development.

I sincerely hope this new administration will give health and sanitation a serious look and deal with the most pressing issues. Let's stop joking about our future and work at achieving our development goals.

According to the UN Millennium Development Goals initiative,
Promote hand-washing and treatment of home drinking water.
and
Prevent and provide effective treatment of pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and other infectious diseases.(6)
are part of MDG 4, Reduce child mortality. Poor quality water (the kind we buy by the gallon in the absence of filtered tap water) is one of the most important factors in diarrhoea and kills numerous babies, children and even adults. Others are made weak by it and cannot work as much as needed towards the improvement of their individual situations and that of Ghana in general.

Ghana is committed to the achievement of the MDGs. Clean water and hygiene for all are an intrinsic and necessary part of her success in that area.

A last word. I've just discovered that AVRL launched a call centre. I am not sure whether every person paying a monthly bill without receiving a drop of water should call them until they perform their part of the contract. Click here to read their press release.


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