Access to water and financial implications of groundwater development in Dodowa, Ghana.
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Date
May 2016
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Abstract
Global urban population growth has led to an increase in the difficulties in urban water provision. This population growth and urbanization which is rampant in the Sub- Saharan Africa has led to the rapid expansion of slums and informal settlements in the urban centers. Access to drinking water in these urban informal settlements of developing countries has being a challenge. The use of groundwater has hence evolved as a major source of urban water supply. In Ghana, Dodowa is one of the peri-urban communities where groundwater is widely used in addition to utility supplies and hence the research in Dodowa gives a true picture of water supply situation and domestic groundwater use within the urban poor. This study therefore focused on determining access to water supply, its cost implication to consumers and also to assess the financial implications of groundwater development in Dodowa. The methodology adopted was household surveys where a total of 300 households were interviewed to access all the necessary data such as socio-economic status of the consumers, access to water, cost and consumption. In addition, water point inventory was conducted where financial data such as capital cost, operation and maintenance cost and replacement costs of various water points was obtained. The results revealed a variety of water points in Dodowa which include utility pipe public taps, utility piped into buildings, motorized boreholes, hand/foot pump boreholes, hand-dug wells, water tankers and vendors. It was found that groundwater is widely used than all other sources of water supply in Dodowa. As much as 78% of all households use groundwater; only that most consumers of the groundwater sources find the water to be salty and hence they do not patronize it as a main source of supply. The financial analysis revealed that managing a utility public tap as well as motorized borehole fetches good returns with short payback periods (1 year 9 months and 2 years, 3 months respectively) and hence was found to be a profitable business for private water point operators. It was also found that the lowest income group rather pays more for water (0.84 Ghana Cedis/Capita/Day) while the highest income earning group pays less (0.36 Ghana Cedis/Capita/Day). Sachet water was also found to be in high demand (96.3% of all households purchase and use it) and a major contributor to high household water expenditure (it forms 72% of the average household water expenditure).
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Civil Engineering,
College of Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation ,