Ghana: Market forces stir up water debate

The UN’s report warns that if there is not a marked improvement in existing measures, the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water between 1990 and 2015 will be missed. So who is to blame for the failure of current approaches?
The Sustainable Development Network, a coalition of 30 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), firmly points the finger of blame at governments.
The Network says heavy-handed regulation is hindering rather than helping the situation. Pushing the limits It has published a book listing a series of examples from all over the world where, it says, market forces are delivering the clean water that governments have failed to provide. The editor of the book, Kendra Okonski, a director of the UK-based International Policy Network, says the solution is to give water a market value.
"If we view water as a global common good, it means that we collectively own it and no one has the responsibility to look after it. "But if we manage it with markets and underlying institutions - such as property rights and the rule of law - then people are much more likely to look after the water and use it more effectively," she told the BBC News website.
One region where governments are failing is Africa, Ms Okonski says, where many countries are experiencing rapid rates of urbanisation. "You have some of the poorest people on the planet moving to cities, to live where the slums or shanty towns are located. But national and local governments refuse to extend the boundaries of the cities.
"These cities’ water systems are not being extended because the governments are refusing to recognise the land tenure of these people." She says this has led to many small-scale entrepreneurs providing water all over these cities in a number of ways. "What they do is meet a demand, so in a way you do have markets operating in these regions.
That is not to say it is satisfactory, but it is an example of people providing services where governments are not." Barun Mitra, director of the Delhi-based Liberty Institute, agrees: "It is the inability to learn from the bottom up that is at the root of this problem."
He gives an example of an "informal entrepreneur" providing water to people in the poorest area of the Indian capital. "This entrepreneur has connected up a number of dwellings in the slum by a grid of pipes. He then provides water for half an hour in the morning and another half an hour in the evening. "People pay about $10 a month for this," Mr Mitra told BBC website.
“Where the monthly income will be $100 or less, this is a lot of money but people are willing to pay because they will have a secure supply of water. "But because the entrepreneur is also from the same area he can judge people’s ability to pay on a case-by-case basis. It is an extremely flexible way of providing water."

Click on the link above the read the whole article.