Transition from self-sufficiency in local groundwater resources
Accra and its hinterland exemplify an African city with chronic water shortages, where residents are accustomed to implementing a host of coping strategies in response to the public utility’s inability to provide water to everyone, struggling and “chasing” for water from a multitude of sources (Peloso and Morinville
2014). The poor are particularly disadvantaged in terms of public service delivery and often rely instead on groundwater from communal wells or through self-supply, a solution seen particularly in peri-urban Accra (Grönwall
2016; Machdar et al.
2013). Being a coastal city, seawater intrusion restricts the use of groundwater in large parts of Ghana’s capital. However, at 30 km from the coastline, Dodowa does not suffer from this problem. The township is located in the foothills of the Akwapim-Togoland mountain ranges at the northwestern fringe of the Accra Plains, large parts of which is an aquifer recharge area. The mountain range serves as a watershed, and accounts for a micro-rain shadow effect that influences the climate of Dodowa and its immediate surroundings. Mean annual rainfall increases from 762 mm on the coast to 1220 mm in the north and northeast close to the mountain range. This part of Ghana is one of the hottest and driest areas of the country. Dodowa is built on strongly metamorphosed ancient sediments characterized by weathered and fractured metamorphic rock (quartzite and gneiss, on the NW–SW and NE–SE, respectively). Most fractured aquifers are found in the gneiss, thus in the eastern part of the township (GSS
2014; Kortatsi
2006).
Like most urban areas globally, Accra and Dodowa are undergoing transformations. As the capital of the Shai-Osudoku District, formed in 2012, Dodowa is witnessing rapid growth primarily due to immigration from rural parts of the country and from Accra proper, and with the latter comes gentrification. An important set of changes relate to the provision of water. The Ghana Water Company Ltd. (GWCL
2016) is responsible for water supply in the country’s urban areas—but administratively, the township of Dodowa, at the fringe of Greater Accra, also falls under the Community Water and Sanitation Agency that is in charge of rural areas and small towns. Hence, in parallel with the GWCL, this agency, alongside with the Shai-Osudoku District Assembly (SODA), still assumes a certain level of responsibility for Dodowa’s water provision. However, rather than ensuring that residents are well-provided for, those accountable for water supply and related governance issues remain unresponsive to strategic planning needs (Grönwall
2016).
The GWCL supplies water via domestic connections—fully private ones indoors, or shared ones in the compound or inner yard. The company levies an estimated cost for every new installation; the minimum charged according to an old study (Franceys and Gerlach
2006) was GH¢150,000 (ca. USD 33,275), a prohibitively high cost. Communal solutions, through which the majority of water users have access, include public standpipes and resellers with taps categorized as ‘commercial’; at both one often finds polyethylene storage tanks with taps and an attendant charging on a pay-and-fetch basis. A normal price is around GH¢ 0.40–0.50 per jerry can à 1 gallon (ca. 4.5 L), while a customer with a domestic connection contract pays substantially less (GH¢ 2.98 for 0–5 m
3).
In areas where the pressure in the GWCL network is poor, or the water supply otherwise insufficient, SODA provides water from communal boreholes. In recent years, the assembly has constructed five new ones following requests from users in Dodowa. The water provisioning alternatives for residents of Dodowa are summed in Table
1.
Table 1
Water sources and providers in Dodowa
Reproduced with permission from (Grönwall
2016)
1 | Piped surface water from the Kpong | GWCL |
2 | | Own connection; into building or to yard tap |
3 | | Resold from registered public tap/standpipe |
4 | | Resold via neighbor (à domestic or commercial tariff) |
5 | Bottles and sachet water | Private vendor (controlled by the food and drugs authority) |
6 | Borehole fitted with manual or motorized pump | Assembly (SODA), community, neighbor or self |
7 | Dug well | Assembly, community, neighbor or self |
8 | Public tap/standpipe (often stored in ‘poly tank’) | GWCL (no. 3–4 above), assembly or community |
9 | Tanker or cart (Kpong water or groundwater) | Private vendor |
10 | Rainwater harvesting | Self |
11 | River or stream | (Commons; self) |
According to our household survey, 47% of respondents accessed water at a public standpipe or commercial tap, while 21% had access to piped water into a building or yard. Altogether, 57% had GWCL water as their main source. However, 55% of respondents also reported having a second source as a back-up or to complement the first. Groundwater plays a major role in Dodowa; most respondents (78%) use it as their main and/or secondary source, accessing it from any of the area’s 37 dug wells and 20 boreholes. The latter are fitted with a hand or foot pump, or are motorized. While a couple of ‘community wells’ dug in the 1960s are still in use, it is more common that dug wells are installed and maintained by (groups of) families, serving especially poor households. Observations in the area also suggest that a hitherto slow but visible gentrification results in more private, motorized boreholes. It may be that this transformation of Dodowa is taking place partly because of the easy access to groundwater at the outer fringes of the capital city, as advertised by real estate agents. The water table is generally very shallow at a few meters below the surface of the ground, enabling poor households to obtain water from dug wells. The cost of drilling and developing a borehole is relatively low at about GH¢15,000 (ca. USD 3,500).
The GWCL previously abstracted water from six boreholes in Dodowa and distributed it through the local network to customers and standpipes. Today, the utility instead sources its water from the Volta River via the Akosombo dam and the Kpong treatment plant (to the west of Accra the water comes from the Weija reservoir, fed by the Densu River). For Dodowa the change came into effect at the end of 2014 when the ‘Kpong expansion intake project’ was finalized. It featured a new water treatment plant, power substations, transmission pipelines, new reservoirs, pumps, and booster stations. Carried out to improve supply, it also aimed to benefit communities such as Dodowa, through which the mains pass. International companies including Siemens and China Ghazouba Group were responsible for the construction of the plant, which was partly funded by Israel and the Netherlands, and partly by a loan from the Bank of China (Government of Ghana
2016; Modern Ghana
2014).
With so-called Kpong water now available from the centralized distribution system, the GWCL stopped abstracting water from the boreholes in Dodowa by removing the pumps. During interviews for this study, some respondents expressed that they were content that groundwater was no longer provided in the network as it was very “salty” and would not let the soap lather; however, it appeared as if few were well-informed about the water they used, in terms of quality parameters or in terms of the raw water source. It also remained unclear whether Kpong water was actually only meant to supplement the local boreholes for customers in Dodowa. At GWCL headquarters there was little interest in sharing information, while a local employee opined that the good-yielding boreholes should be used again. In a phone interview, a senior SODA representative shared a personal observation: As the piped water was sometimes ‘salty’ in taste, this would indicate that groundwater was still occasionally supplied.
Respondents complained that the piped supply was equally intermittent after Dodowa was connected to the mains. While it may seem that SODA could have assumed responsibility for the boreholes and infrastructure from the GWCL, the way in which the utility (purportedly) discontinued the groundwater use is an example of how authorities act in silos rather than collaborate, to the detriment of end users who are not consulted.
Dodowa’s aquifers used to function as a raw water source also to other parts of Accra, from when GWCL had a private operator, Aqua Vitens Rand, Ltd. (2006–2011). In 2006, five mechanized boreholes were commissioned to supplement the water supply, mainly to serve the Adenta municipality adjacent to Dodowa (Norely
2006). Having performed successful test drilling at selected sites, those boreholes, along with eight others, became operational in 2008 (Ghanaian Chronicle
2008). The then Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing announced plans for the development of “mega watersheds” in parts of Accra, involving deep drilling to tap water from aquifers to add some 90,000 m
3 a day into the Accra water distribution system (Vinorkor and Afari-Mintah
2008). For reasons never made clear, this plan was never realized, but GWCL customers in the Dodowa Water District and Adenta were supplied with groundwater from Dodowa once a week until borehole pumping was discontinued due to the Kpong expansion project. According to GWCL, average production from the boreholes in 2012 stood at 40,700 m
3 a month.
… to increasing dependence on packaged water
In terms of drinking water safety for those in Dodowa who self-supply from the aquifers, the level of acceptability was found to vary greatly. Three out of four of those surveyed considered water from their main source fit to drink: 80% did not treat their water—a practice that may pose a significant health risk especially if water is taken from shallow, dug wells that are generally prone to wastewater contamination (Machdar et al.
2013; Lapworth et al.
2017). Approximately half of those who had adopted a ‘treatment’ method said they let the water stand and settle. Chlorine, alum, or other chemicals were used by the other half. However, among the survey respondents, 96% said that they bought sachet water, while a third bought bottled water. Though inconclusive in this respect, our empirical findings indicate that few respondents resorted to sachets and/or bottled water as their only source of drinking water.
That Dodowa’s rich and poor alike turn to sachet water for drinking mirrors development across West Africa. Those 500-mL polypropylene sleeves, heat-sealed at both ends, are one of the go-to solutions with the most rapid uptake. Bottles and 20-liter jars have been available for a considerable period, but sachets have become popular in recent decades, and have especially permeated the low-income market in Accra, mainly for reasons of convenience (Stoler et al.
2014). In open-ended interviews on this subject, it emerged that the buying of sachets had “become a strong habit” in Dodowa over the past decade, one that people can generally afford (a sachet normally costs GH¢ 0.20; ca. USD 0.05). A vendor in Dodowa explained that sachets are “the order of the day and people can afford it” and an elderly man held that “pomposity drives human beings to pay for sachet water. People have got more money today, they want to show off”. It has been found from in-depth studies of various parts of Accra that demand is also strongly linked to the public utility’s inability to provide reliable services (Peloso and Morinville
2014; Stoler et al.
2015).
However, of those surveyed in Dodowa, 60% explained that they perceived sachet water as cleaner or safer, while a third referred to taste as a reason to buying it. It is noteworthy that the general image of Accra’s groundwater is that it is unfit for drinking. Key informants in the city, representing authorities and academia, explained that it contains too much bacteria and salt (from seawater intrusion) to be used for human consumption (cf. van Rooijen et al.
2008). Among respondents and interviewees in Dodowa itself, the views on the ‘salty’ taste were inconsistent, which can in turn be due to personal preferences but also on where in the township the groundwater is obtained. As found by the local research team, several wells and boreholes have high electrical conductivity (up to 5000 uS/cm), indicating salinity from natural geological sources and/or human activity. In those areas, sachet or bottles may be good alternatives to treatment prior to consumption through, for instance, chlorination, UV/solar disinfection, or reverse osmosis (RO) treatment to ensure safe drinking water (cf. Machdar et al.
2013; Wright et al.
2016), but such methods tend to be costly and hence out of reach of the poor.
Though most of what is packaged in sachet bags sold in Greater Accra is treated GWCL water that undergoes various steps of additional purification (Arku
2016; Stoler et al.
2012), some companies source their raw water from boreholes. Back in the late 1980s, the potential for spring and mineral water production was assessed in Ghana, with promising prospects identified along the foothills of the Accra Plains (Kortatsi
1994). Indeed, three companies—all set up within the past 5 years—are currently abstracting, treating, packaging and selling groundwater from the northeastern part of Dodowa. According to company informants, the boreholes that are in use at each yield water from a depth ranging between 20 and 60 m. It is filtered through RO membranes as one of several steps to treat it, and the premium-priced bottled water is subject to more treatment than that packaged in sachets. The company representatives had no comprehensive picture of the chemical quality of the raw water and what treatment was optimal; however, our first measurements indicated total dissolved solid (TDS) values in the order of 120 mg/L near the mountain foothills, which is a low concentration that should render good-tasting water (cf. WHO
2003).
Groundwater availability
What groundwater resources are available for abstraction for sustainable human use depends on local recharge and natural discharge to springs, river flows and ecosystems. Globally, groundwater withdrawal for drinking water is small in comparison with the volumes used in the agricultural sector, given that humans consume at most up to a few liters per day. In Dodowa, the decision to cease with the distribution of groundwater from boreholes should have resulted in a decrease in the volumes abstracted from local aquifers, improving the resource availability for those still depending on them.
Dodowa’s mineral water companies—which provide job opportunities as well as safe drinking water for those who can afford it—are controlled only in terms of the quality of their product, by the Food and Drugs Authority. The Water Resources Commission (WRC) of Ghana is tasked with management and regulation of the country’s freshwater resources and administrates water rights under the Water Use Regulations, 2001, and the Drilling Licence and Groundwater Development Regulations, 2006, but a WRC representative informed us that its capacity to monitor or play a proactive role with respect to groundwater resources is very limited. Permits to, for instance, mineral water companies are therefore generally approved and renewed without the desired level of evaluation. The mineral water companies would have approached SODA, as well as the traditional chief, ahead of establishing a well. In the case of the latter, the need for consultation arises from the fact that by cultural practice one must see the chief to request permission to settle within his community. All chiefs in a district are also part of its assembly, each having one vote when approval is given on how much water can be abstracted.
Companies in Dodowa do not monitor total abstraction volumes with meters or sub-meters but have daily production targets. One respondent said that the average total output of bottles and sachets from his company amounted to approximately 45,000 liters per day. With RO membranes in use, the equivalent of up to three times as much water is used in processing the final product, because brine is rejected as part of the membrane treatment process. Calculated for industrial bottled water production in India, which may be comparable with that of Ghana, operational water use is, on average, 2.9 L of water per 1 L finished product (Tandon et al.
2014).
The total pressure on local aquifers because of packaged water production is not clear, but from figures obtained it is negligible at present. No measures for aquifer recharge were taken by the companies; this was considered unnecessary as the boreholes were always yielding. While some of the RO reject is reportedly used for flushing toilets, what is left over from the process is either evaporated or returned to local aquifers through irrigation and subsequent infiltration, either within the company’s premises or after having been channeled to adjacent farms. Thus, though recharge does not take place in a ‘managed’ way, it should still be beneficial to local aquifers.
Much in line with how groundwater was dismissed by experts in Accra on grounds of its quality generally being inferior, it appeared that no one had a comprehensive picture of the abstraction situation in Dodowa or elsewhere. The SODA representative interviewed was unaware of any groundwater abstraction in Dodowa being registered, and the WRC has no capacity to deal with, or seemingly much interest in, the resource. Furthermore, residents appeared unaware of water table fluctuations, any over-abstraction risks, or of potential benefits from (natural or ‘managed’) aquifer recharge. Essentially all (90%) survey respondents reported that they harvest rainwater, and gutters could be seen at the majority of houses including those of the very poor, possibly reflecting how, in recent years, government officials and development partners have emphasized the role of rainwater (Owusu and Teye
2014). However, our observations made clear that this was only for storing in buckets and drums or direct consumption. Even those who remarked that the water table tends to fall in the dry season (January to February) had never considered arranging for recharge of their or the community’s wells in one way or the other, and the topic of aquifer depletion was clearly not one discussed among residents or with SODA.