Sustainable Safe Water and Sanitation Interventions in Remote Parts of Ghana

Abstract

The role of a small non-government organisation (NGO) is significant in bringing safe water and sanitation to subsistence farming communities in remote parts of Ghana. The experience of the charity Ghana Outlook, a small NGO based in the United Kingdom working with small Ghanaian NGOs, illustrates how genuine involvement of beneficiaries, throughout the development and implementation of interventions, leads to successful outcomes. The process builds community ownership of the intervention. The community will lead at problem definition stage and their views will be decisive in the choice of intervention. They will provide unpaid labour to construct latrines, wells or sand dams and will nominate personnel to be trained in routine maintenance. They will enhance a borehole’s sustainability by carefully managing extraction of water.

Important practical insights into the design and construction of boreholes, latrines, and sand dams are presented, together with practical advice on the careful management of boreholes, operation of dry pit latrines and how to enable access to safe water during the short but critical periods of labour-intensive farming.

For safe water projects, two indicators of performance are presented. First, does it give everyone enough safe water for basic, daily needs? Second, does it relieve the burden of responsibility, borne by women and children, to provide water? Examples are given on how to measure the indicators.