Water Africa-Ghana

ACCRA, 16 February 2004 (IRIN) – The African water suppliers gathered in the capital, Accra, Ghana on Monday to discuss how partnerships with the private sector could improve the efficiency of management and the new pump Investments in water, in the absence of the continent and sewage.

Two thirds of all Africans have no access to drinking water. The problem is equally serious in boom towns and cities and in remote villages.

“We must double our current capacity of our water distribution systems to meet the UN Millennium Development (MDGs). Investments in water supply are enormous. The government alone can not achieve this” Ghanaian Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahamati, said the opening of the meeting of five days.

“This Congress should consider how best to establish partnerships with the public and private sector in achieving this goal,” he added.

This is the first time that the Union of African Water Distributors is holding its biennial convention of 12 in Ghana, whose poor state of water delivery systems need to be urgently reviewed.

About half of the daily production of state of Ghana Water Company 120 million gallons is lost through leaks and unpaid bills.

Like other African countries, Ghana is experiencing rapid urban population growth, mismanagement at parastatals and a supply of antiquated water infrastructure.

The government has prepared an investment plan to provide U.S. $ 1600000000 drinking water to all populalation in 2015, but asserts that the private sector will have to pay some of the bill by taking a leading role in what has so far was 100 percent state sector.

“The shows are made in Congress. The questions are asked and then we are all interested in discovering the various achievements, as well as technical and administrative, that countries such as Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal have a clock speed of their systems of water supply, that can be replicated, “Congressional President Gerald Samuel Lamptey told IRIN on Monday.

Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal have both establishments efficient water operating concession in French literature.

The four-day conference comes at a time when African leaders have promised to solve the continent’s water and sanitation problems through the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

Many keynote address at the conference focused on the need for public-private partnerships to improve water distribution systems on the continent.

Ghana Minister of Works and Housing Minister, Alhaji Mustapha Idris, whose ministry is responsible for water supply, said governments should partner the private sector at large, so that large investments are needed.

“The partnership should not be viewed purely from the water, but also the treatment and management of the river,” he said.

Congress will consider in detail the thorny issue of how such partnerships should be managed.

Ghana, for example, had to delay the implementation of a World Bank project for restructuring the water sector due to public outcry at the prospect of increased water rates.

“Ideologues say they cry poor. But for now, the poor pay much more water to groups of private water. We must go forward in this public-private partnership, which ensures that we continue to clean water,” Lamptey, who is the Head of Ghana Water Company, told IRIN.