According to research conducted by the University of Ghana’s Institute of Statistical, Social, and Economic Research (ISSER), more than 36% of rural residents still rely on unreliable, constrained, and unimproved sources of drinking water.
This is supported by the recently released Ghana Social Development Outlook (GSDO) 2022, a biannual report from the research organization. It noted that both sources appear to be inaccessible to rural residents despite the fact that access to improved drinking water grew by 10 percentage points between 2018 and 2021, with sachet water being the largest source at 37.4 per cent and pipe-borne water at 31.7 per cent.
According to the survey, Northern regions of the nation’s residents appear to have greater difficulties in gaining access to adequate drinking water. For example, in the North-East Region, 2% of the 400,000 urban residents lack access to improved water, while in the Savannah Region, 17% of rural residents similarly lack access to clean drinking water.
“Water accessibility rates were low in regions like Savannah, North-East, and Oti. The access rate for rural dwellers is 74.4 per cent and for urban dwellers 96.4 per cent; but much lower for North-East at 54.8 per cent and Savannah at 55.1 per cent,” GSDO noted.
Dr Martha Awo, Head of Social Division, ISSER, offered a solution to the problem and emphasized the necessity of government cooperation with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and development partners who are engaged in water and sanitation-related ecosystem advancement, particularly borehole construction for communities.
“To bridge this gap, the government must collaborate with NGOs and development partners; because sometimes they construct these mechanised boreholes and other facilities for the people to grant access to water, but when the project is done and the system develops faults maintenance becomes a challenge; hence, the government must work hand-in-hand to provide a holistic solution,” she said.
