Community participation in Old Ningo

By Emmanuel Adisenu, ProNet Accra     

ProNet Accra, in partnership with WaterAid Ghana, has been implementing an integrated water and sanitation project in the peri-urban district of Old Ningo in Dangme West since 2003.

The community members of the three electoral areas in the community; Bantama, Kungmortsitsa and Djamarku overcame challenges including unemployment, land scarcity and political differences to construct five 20,000-litre capacity water storage facilities. The high capacity storage tanks were donated to the community by the French Embassy and WaterAid Ghana and connected to the Ghana Water Company main pipes.

Improved access to water has resulted in reduced time spent fetching water. The price of a bucket of water (about 12 litres) has also reduced from ¢1000 - ¢1500 to between ¢350 - ¢500.

Though initially some people read political bias into the project, refusing to cooperate when they saw someone from a different political party at the forefront of an activity, the community eventually came together enthusiastically to make common commitments towards better water and sanitation practices.  

To ensure participation, two committees were formed to ensure proper management of the facilities and the software aspect of the project (especially hygiene promotion).

A water and sanitation committee was set up to manage water points, organise community meetings, organise hygiene promotion sessions, organise clean up exercises, render accounts to steering committee, report to the steering committee, prepare and implement the action plan and keep records of all financial and project activities.

The second committee formed was the steering committee, whose mandate is to, among other things, monitor Watsan committee activities and financial transactions to ProNet Accra.

School Hygiene (SHEP) clubs were also formed to facilitate effective hygiene promotion in the schools and communities. These clubs adopted the child-to-child and child-to-adult strategies to enhance the dissemination of information in the community. Good hygiene practices were adopted resulting in cleaner environments and also washing of hands at critical times especially among the school children.

Young people tackled littering. They visited houses to educate people on the need to send their refuse generated in and outside the house to the refuse dump. They also resolved to report anyone who behaves contrary to the Environmental Health Office guidelines.

The scarcity of land has posed challenges in finding space for water facilities and for expanding existing ones. Any piece of land identified for a public project had to be negotiated for beforehand, since the issue of litigation is rife.

Community members agreed to organise communal labour at least once a month in each electoral area. The problem of unemployment, which is common in the area, has also affected the project to some extent. Most of the people forming the committees joined with the hope that they would be remunerated even though they were informed that it was purely voluntary. After their capacities were built for the task, some of them neglected of the project to search for job opportunities.