Local initiative in community water supply: Case study in Ashanti Region, Ghana

Water supply coverage in Ghana is not to the desired level despite concerted efforts by the Government of Ghana (GOG) and other NGOs. The inability of government led and supported water facilities constituting the formal water service delivery to achieve universal supply obligation has led to individual efforts to cope with the situation. A group of individuals known in this paper as Informal Service Providers (ISP) who have water systems that were originally designed to serve their households but tend to serve their neighbours have proliferated to fill in the gap between demand and supply. Based on a survey of 105 informal service facilities in three districts in Ashanti Region of Ghana, interview of key staff of government agencies andwater quality test performed on samples from the various informal facilities, the paper discusses the regulatory and monitoring system for the informal services that will ultimately improve water delivery. The paper reveals that the ISP play a very important role in water delivery, however; the regulatory mechanism to ensure water quality is not effective.