Sustainability of Rural Communities Drinking Water Systems and Local Development Projects in the Bole, West and Central Gonja Districts of the Savannah Region, Ghana
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/rss.v4i1.140Keywords:
Sustainability, Community Drinking Water, Sustainable Development, Savannah Region, Ghana.Abstract
This study employed the post-positivist epistemology and the cross-sectional survey to examine the factors influencing the sustainability of communities drinking water and local development projects in the Bole, West and Central Gonja Districts of the Savannah Region, Ghana. Proportionate, systematic and simple random techniques were utilised to sample 450 respondents, composed of 392 household heads and 58 officials. Data was collected, utilising self-designed and semi-structured face-to-face interviews and questionnaires. Correlation and regressions were generated to determine relationships between the variables. Results showed community participation (r= 0.576, p-value = 0.019), finance (r = 0.517, p-value = 0.006), sense of ownership (r = 0.573, p-value = 0.012), labour support (r = 0.474, p-value = 0.015), education (r = 0.469, p-value = 0.021), technology (r = - 0.436, p-value = 0.018), maintenance (r = -0.503, p-value = 0.029), water pollution (r = - 0.389, p-value =0.041) and transparency (r = - 0.250, p-value = 0.015), were significantly associated with water projects sustainability. 69.7 percent of variabilities were collectively explained by the independent variables. Since p-values were < α = 0.05, the null hypothesis (Ho) was ruled out in favour of the alternative hypothesis. With strong participation, funding, local ownership, labour, and citizen empowerment, coupled with improved facility maintenance, appropriate technologies, pollution control and good eco-governance, there is almost irresistible likelihood for water and development projects to be sustainable. Depoliticising water, democratisation and eco-friendly strategies are necessary preconditions for an inclusive, self-governing and ecologically responsible citizenship needed for sustainability of water projects at the lowest level of development.
References
Addo LY, (2010). Institutional Analysis of Urban Water Supply in Ghana: The Case of Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Aalborg: Denmark
Aharikundira M., Mushabe S., Tibanyedera B, Namukasa L., (2011). Pro-poor solutions to urban water supply and sanitation: The case of Kampala. Water Science and Technology, 51(8):51-7.
Allan T, (2011). Virtual Water: Tackling the Threat to Our Planet’s Most Precious Resource, I.B. Tauris: London.
Attewell P., Rule JB., (1991). Survey and other methodologies applied to IT impact research: Experiences from a comparative study of business computing, in: Kraemer, K.L, (Eds.), The Information Systems Research Challenge: Survey Research Methods. Harvard Business School Press, Harvard, pp. 299-316.
Awoke ZA, (2012). Assessment of challenges of sustainable rural water supply: Quarit Woreda, Amhara region: MA Thesis. School of Cornell University, Department of Professional Studies.
Babbie E, (2016). The Practice of Social Research (14th ed.). Cengage Learning: Boston
Baffoe-Bonnie B, Harle T, Glennie E, Glenn D, Froydis S, (2008). Framework for Operational Cost Benefit Analysis in Water Supply. TECHNEAU: European Union
Bathsheba EY, (2011). An assessment of the service delivery of GWCL/AVRL in the Sunyani Municipality: MBA Thesis. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Institute of Distance Learning.
Bohman A, (2010). Framing the water challenge. A history of urban water supply and sanitation in Ghana 1909-2005: PhD Thesis. Umea University, Department of Economic History.
Calow RC., Robins NS., MacDonald AM., Macdonald DMJ., Gibbs BR., Orpen WRG., Mtembezeka P., Andrews AJ., Appiah SO., (1997). Groundwater management in drought prone areas of Africa, International Journal of Water Resources Development, 13 (2): 241-261.
Calow RC., MacDonald AM., Nicol AL, Robins NS., (2009). Groundwater security and drought in Africa: Linking availability, access and demand. Ground Water, 48 (2): 246-256.
Community Water and Sanitation Agency-CWSA (2015). Fact sheet: Rural and small towns water service: Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Accra.
Department of Water and Sanitation-DWS (2015). Strategic overcome of the water sectors in South Africa 2015. Department of Sanitation and Water: South Africa.
Doe WH, (2007). Assessing the challenges of water supply in urban Ghana: The case of North Teshie, Master’s Thesis: Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering.
George D, Mallery P, (2003). SPSS for windows step by step: A simple guide and reference. 11.0 update (4th ed.). Allyn and Bacon: Boston.
Ghana Statistical Service (2014). 2010 Population and housing census, Ghana Statistical Service: Accra,
Gliem JA, Gliem RR, (2003). Calculating, interpreting, and reporting cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for measurement scales. In Midwest Research-to-Practice Conference on Adult, Continuing and Community Education: 8-10 October 2003.
Haysom A, (2006). A study of the factors affecting sustainability of rural water suppliers in Tanzania, Master’s Thesis: Grafield University, Silsoe Institute of Water and the Environment.
Iribarnegaray MA, Seghezzo L, (2012). Governance, sustainability and decision making in water and sanitation management systems, Sustainability, 4 (1): 2922-2945.
Kinyanjui MW, Wanyoike DM, (2016). Assessment of factors influencing sustainability of peri-urban water supply projects: A survey of Nyahururu sub-county, Kenya, International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, 4 (5): 2348-0386.
Kothari C. (2004). Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques, New Age International Publishers: New Delhi.
Lencha A, (2013). Rural water supply management and sustainability in Ethiopia: The case of water supply schemes in Adama area, Ethiopia. Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 5 (2): 208-221.
Litwin MS, (1995). How to Measure Survey Reliability and Validity, Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks.
MacDonald AM, Calow RC, (2007). Drought and community water supplies, Waterlines, 26 (1): 14-16.
Macdonald MA, (2009). What impact will climate change have on rural groundwater supplies in Africa? Hydrological Science Journal, 64 (3): 690-703.
Marks SJ, Komives K, Davis J, (2014). Community participation and water supply sustainability: Evidence from handpump projects in rural Ghana, Journal of Planning Education and Research, 34 (3): 276-286.
Marks SJ, Onda K, Davis J, (2013). Does sense of ownership matter for rural water system sustainability? Evidence from Kenya. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 3 (2): 122-133
Manu PK, (2015). Challenges of water supply in urban Ghana: An assessment of the coping strategies in Adentan Municipality: Master’s Thesis, University of Ghana, Department of Public Administration.
McClosky H, (1969). Political Inquiry: The Nature and Uses of Survey Research, Macmillan: New York
Miler R, Brewer J, (2003). The A-Z of Social Research, Sage: London
Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing-MWRWH (2012). National strategy for community participation in management of urban WASH services, MWRWH: Accra
Morinville C, Harris LM, (2014). Participation, politics, and panaceas: Exploring the possibilities and limits of participatory urban water governance in Accra, Ghana. Ecology and Society, 19 (3): 36.
Mugenda MO, (2003). Research Methods: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. African Center for Technology Statistics: Narobi.
Neil C, (2007). The Politics of the Environment: Ideas, Activism, Policy (2n ed.). Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
Oates WE, (1972). Decentralisation Theorem, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: New York
Olowu D, WunschSJ, (2004). Local Governance in Africa: The Challenges of Democratic Decentralisation (Eds.), Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc: London
Pallant J, (2003). SPSS Survival Manual: A Step by Step Guide to Data Analysis Using SPSS for Windows (Version 10 and 11), Open University Press: Maidenhead
Rogers P, Hall AW, (2003). Effective water governance, Global Water Partnership Secretariat: Stockholm
Romano GS, (2013). Factors Affecting Water Utility Companies’ Willingness to Promote Sustainable Water Use, Social Science Electronic Publishing Inc.: Botswana
Sarantakos S, (2013). Social Research (4th ed.), Red Glob Press: Macmillan.
Saunders M, Lewis P, Thornhill A, (2009). Research Methods for Business Students (5th ed.), FT Prentice Hall: Harlow
Schouten T, Moriarty PB, (2003). Community Water, Community Management: From System to Service in Rural Areas, ITDG Publishing: London.
Sheffield J, Wood EF, (2008). Global trends and variability in soil moisture and drought characteristics 1950-2000: From observation-driven simulations of the terrestrial hydrologic cycle, Journal of Climate, 21 (1): 432-458.
Smart Development Work (2018). Cases studies on functionality of rural water supply service in Africa, WASH writeup workshop, Adisababa: 20-24 March 2018
United Nations World Water Assessment Programme-UNWWAP (2015). The United Nations World Water Development Report 2015: Water for a Sustainable World, UNESCO: Paris.
Waithaka A, (2013). Socio-economic constraints to community participation in rural water management in Ndarugu-Thiririka sub-catchment, Athi Basin, Kenya, Master’s Thesis, Kenyatta University, Department of Geography.
World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) (2000). Global water supply and sanitation assessment report-2000, World Health Organization: New York
Wrong D, (1979). Power, its Forms, Bases and Uses; Key Concepts in Social Sciences, The Camelot Press Ltd.: Southampton.
Yire ZI, (2015). The Role of MMDA in Maintenance of WASH Facilities in Ghana, Ghana News Agency: Accra
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
