My TGC Ghana 2012 Essential Question and Guiding Question For International Travel: What Is The Status of Water Security in Ghana?
The yellow jerry can. Unseen in Stillwater, Minnesota, yet ubiquitous in most of the developing world. Holds five gallons of water, weighs forty pounds when full. Carried on backs, hips, and miraculously to those of us from the United States, heads. It is estimated that nearly one billion of the world’s people have limited access to clean, safe water. The burden of walking for water falls disproportionately on women and girls, and on average involves six kilometers of walking each day. Those who are walking for water forego the opportunity to go to school or engage in other activities that may contribute to their economic welfare.
Ghana is considered one of the most politically stable countries in Africa, has one of the world’s ten fastest growing economies and as compared to its African neighbors, a relatively high GDP per capita of $3,256. My Essential Question For International Travel was “What is the status of water security in Ghana?” Ghana is fortunate to have abundant surface and groundwater. Due to competition between domestic needs and those of agriculture and industry and lack of sufficient infrastructure, water insecurity persists. Water and sanitation issues contribute to 70% of diseases reported in Ghana.
Access to water becomes part of your consciousness immediately upon arrival in Ghana. Upon exiting Kotoka International Airport in Accra, a gust of hot, humid air hits your face. Bottled water is readily accessible for foreign tourists and Ghanaians who can afford it. Common among street goods being “hawked”, and more affordable, are sachet bags of water. (Unfortunately, those sachet bags are often indiscriminately littered after use, a significant contributor to Ghana’s sanitation crisis.)
The first three full days of my TGC fellowship were spent in and around Accra, Ghana’s capital city and largest urban area, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 4 million people. Rapid growth due to West African and Ghanaian rural to urban immigration, poverty and lack of effective government planning and regulation have created an urban housing mosaic of varying densities and qualities. 1/3 of Accra’s residents are slum dwellers. Urban water infrastructure is stretched at best, and nonexistent at worst. NGO WaterAid estimates that 2.5 million Ghanaian urban residents do not have access to potable water. Large metal water bowls and yellow jerry cans are a common site on city streets, as people walk for water to the nearest pump.
I learned that Ghana’s urban water supply challenges go beyond access. Even for those with pipes, tap water is inconsistent, potentially unavailable for hours, days or even weeks. Everyone that is able purchases water from private sources in order to be prepared for the next time the faucets do not run. For those of modest income, it’s transported and stored in metal bowls and jerry cans. Those with more resources may have a huge, outdoor, refillable black poly tank.
I learned from our local facilitator, Ghanaian Akem Lartson, that Accra’s existing urban water supply experiences a high degree of loss due to leakage and illegal connections. Just as a U.S. resident might tap in to his neighbor’s wireless Internet service, Ghanaians tap into the urban water supply. An additional layer of complication for municipal water provision is the fact that many residents connected to the water supply do not pay their water bills.
The bulk of my TGC fellowship was spent in Cape Coast, Ghana’s seventh largest city with an estimated population of 214,000. The 90-mile drive from Accra to Cape Coast and time spent in and around Cape Coast provided an opportunity to observe water security in rural areas in passing and in a smaller city in more depth. NGO WaterAid estimates that 7 million Ghanaian rural residents do not have access to clean, safe water.
The now familiar sight of sachet water, bottled water, metal bowls, jerry cans and black poly tanks greeted us in Cape Coast. Our initial tour of Wesley Girls High School included their new water purification facility. As our host teachers explained, the school cannot depend on the municipal water supply to be consistent and safe, and therefore needs to make provision for its own water supply. An outbreak of cholera or any waterborne disease at Wesley Girls would spell doom for enrollment. (Accra experienced a cholera outbreak after our visit in Spring 2012. 4000 cases and 64 deaths were reported.)
Day trips in and around Cape Coast provided the opportunity to see many people walking for water. Residents of villages on the north side of Cape Coast lugged bowls and jerry cans of river water. Empty yellow jerry cans were stacked up on the balcony of our host teacher’s apartment in Elmina, evidence of the lack of water security experienced by his middle-class family.
The issue of water security cannot be divorced from the issue of wastewater and sanitation in general. In 2008, UNICEF rated Ghana as the “second dirtiest country in Africa”, second only to Niger. Only 19% of urban dwellers and 3% of rural residents have adequate sanitation facilities. Latrines, sewerage, wastewater treatment and garbage collection are scarce.
Ghana’s goal is 85% coverage for water supply and sanitation by 2015, exceeding the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of halving the percentage of the population without access. Ghana is on track to meet the water goal, but unlikely to meet the sanitation goal. Ghana currently relies heavily on international funding for its water and sanitation efforts. Some hope lies in gradual reforms based on a new National Water Policy rolled out in 2008, continued political stability, steady economic development and efforts to increase hygiene and environmental sustainability education.
A piece of that hope was on display at Wesley Girls High School. While we were visiting, a group of girls approached the Assistant Headmaster with a service project idea: a plastic bottle recycling program on campus. They received her enthusiastic support.
Ghana is considered one of the most politically stable countries in Africa, has one of the world’s ten fastest growing economies and as compared to its African neighbors, a relatively high GDP per capita of $3,256. My Essential Question For International Travel was “What is the status of water security in Ghana?” Ghana is fortunate to have abundant surface and groundwater. Due to competition between domestic needs and those of agriculture and industry and lack of sufficient infrastructure, water insecurity persists. Water and sanitation issues contribute to 70% of diseases reported in Ghana.
Access to water becomes part of your consciousness immediately upon arrival in Ghana. Upon exiting Kotoka International Airport in Accra, a gust of hot, humid air hits your face. Bottled water is readily accessible for foreign tourists and Ghanaians who can afford it. Common among street goods being “hawked”, and more affordable, are sachet bags of water. (Unfortunately, those sachet bags are often indiscriminately littered after use, a significant contributor to Ghana’s sanitation crisis.)
The first three full days of my TGC fellowship were spent in and around Accra, Ghana’s capital city and largest urban area, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 4 million people. Rapid growth due to West African and Ghanaian rural to urban immigration, poverty and lack of effective government planning and regulation have created an urban housing mosaic of varying densities and qualities. 1/3 of Accra’s residents are slum dwellers. Urban water infrastructure is stretched at best, and nonexistent at worst. NGO WaterAid estimates that 2.5 million Ghanaian urban residents do not have access to potable water. Large metal water bowls and yellow jerry cans are a common site on city streets, as people walk for water to the nearest pump.
I learned that Ghana’s urban water supply challenges go beyond access. Even for those with pipes, tap water is inconsistent, potentially unavailable for hours, days or even weeks. Everyone that is able purchases water from private sources in order to be prepared for the next time the faucets do not run. For those of modest income, it’s transported and stored in metal bowls and jerry cans. Those with more resources may have a huge, outdoor, refillable black poly tank.
I learned from our local facilitator, Ghanaian Akem Lartson, that Accra’s existing urban water supply experiences a high degree of loss due to leakage and illegal connections. Just as a U.S. resident might tap in to his neighbor’s wireless Internet service, Ghanaians tap into the urban water supply. An additional layer of complication for municipal water provision is the fact that many residents connected to the water supply do not pay their water bills.
The bulk of my TGC fellowship was spent in Cape Coast, Ghana’s seventh largest city with an estimated population of 214,000. The 90-mile drive from Accra to Cape Coast and time spent in and around Cape Coast provided an opportunity to observe water security in rural areas in passing and in a smaller city in more depth. NGO WaterAid estimates that 7 million Ghanaian rural residents do not have access to clean, safe water.
The now familiar sight of sachet water, bottled water, metal bowls, jerry cans and black poly tanks greeted us in Cape Coast. Our initial tour of Wesley Girls High School included their new water purification facility. As our host teachers explained, the school cannot depend on the municipal water supply to be consistent and safe, and therefore needs to make provision for its own water supply. An outbreak of cholera or any waterborne disease at Wesley Girls would spell doom for enrollment. (Accra experienced a cholera outbreak after our visit in Spring 2012. 4000 cases and 64 deaths were reported.)
Day trips in and around Cape Coast provided the opportunity to see many people walking for water. Residents of villages on the north side of Cape Coast lugged bowls and jerry cans of river water. Empty yellow jerry cans were stacked up on the balcony of our host teacher’s apartment in Elmina, evidence of the lack of water security experienced by his middle-class family.
The issue of water security cannot be divorced from the issue of wastewater and sanitation in general. In 2008, UNICEF rated Ghana as the “second dirtiest country in Africa”, second only to Niger. Only 19% of urban dwellers and 3% of rural residents have adequate sanitation facilities. Latrines, sewerage, wastewater treatment and garbage collection are scarce.
Ghana’s goal is 85% coverage for water supply and sanitation by 2015, exceeding the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of halving the percentage of the population without access. Ghana is on track to meet the water goal, but unlikely to meet the sanitation goal. Ghana currently relies heavily on international funding for its water and sanitation efforts. Some hope lies in gradual reforms based on a new National Water Policy rolled out in 2008, continued political stability, steady economic development and efforts to increase hygiene and environmental sustainability education.
A piece of that hope was on display at Wesley Girls High School. While we were visiting, a group of girls approached the Assistant Headmaster with a service project idea: a plastic bottle recycling program on campus. They received her enthusiastic support.