PCS Summary Report

The concept of PCS and its link with sustainability of rural water systems is a novelty in Ghana. This study which is currently going on in Ghana is part of a global effort by the WB to find out the influence of post project activities on the sustainability of rural water systems.

Trend group in conjunction with two other external consultants are conducting the Ghana study. TREND prepared a PCS report from consultations the group had with various sector stakeholders at the national, intermediate and the community levels.

The report identifies four forms of PCS in Ghana as follows:

Spare parts depots and outlets. There is currently three major warehouses in the country with limited numbers of effective regional outlets

1. Trained area mechanics.  These were trained at the time the systems were installed. Many of the mechanics have been retrained  and are available to communities who need help with repairs
2. DWSTs. These are established at the district level. They provide technical and managerial support to communities. In general they respond to communities with problems and requests. However, the effectiveness and activity of the DWSTs varies from district to district and region to region depending in part on the material support they have for their work and on the stability of the team
3. MOM in Volta Region. This consists of quarterly maintenance audit. The audits are conducted by environmental health assistants

The government is currently encouraging and supporting the first three forms of PCS nationwide.  The plan for the future is to expand MOM to other regions.

The first three types of PCS outlined are generally demand-driven, meaning that communities need to travel to or contact the facilities in order to obtain the support.   In principle, all villages have access to spare parts warehouses, to trained area mechanics, and to DWST staff, but some villages face fewer constraints in accessing these services than others. 

The fourth form of PCS described above is a supply-driven program: all villages in Volta received the quarterly maintenance audits whether they sought it out or not.  The single variable therefore that defines whether or not the villages had access to MOM during these two years is the region in which they are located

Based on the outcome of the consultations, a table that outlines the possible policy questions that the research can address was prepared.  Questions 1 and 2 look at the impact on sustainability of bore-hole systems of access to spare parts.  These questions have the methodological advantage that the study could take place entirely in one region, which means one language and one donor.  The disadvantage of these questions is that it is difficult to know how to accurately classify villages into control and treatment villages.  The assumption here is that geography plays a large role in determining ease of access to spare parts, but geography may not be the full picture.  At the moment, there is limited information about the other factors that might affect access and use of spare parts before we actually visit the villages. There is therefore a great risk is choosing this option. 

Questions 3 and 4 look at the effectiveness of MOM in two different settings: where spare parts are easy to access and where they are not.  Question 4 which looks at how well MOM works in areas with difficult access to spare parts is the hardest test for MOM.  Both questions relate to the MOM program and are, therefore, more relevant to current policy questions in Ghana today.  From a methodological perspective, these questions have the disadvantage that they require us to compare Danida villages to World Bank villages and to compare villages of different ethnic groups. However, the project implementation methodology was very similar in the two cases, and the general consensus that the cultural differences between villages in Volta, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo are not large enough to invalidate any comparison.  These options therefore pose fewer risks than the first two.

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PCS summary report for web publication 01-07-05.doc  (267 kB)