Back to basics: urban households’ perspective on free water supply in Ghana in the COVID-19 pandemic
Water supply is a basic human right and governments have sought to fulfil this right through free supply of water. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed governments, including the Government of Ghana, to return to supply of free water as a measure of enhancing personal hygiene in fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic. This study sought to analyse the reliability of water supply before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and the state of households’ water consumption during the pandemic. The paper is based on an online survey of 4,257 urban households across the 16 administrative regions of Ghana. The study found that flow reliability has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic free water delivery. We also established that correlation between consumption before and during the pandemic was r = 0.659, p < 0.01. Therefore, use of the ‘stay home campaign’ as a strategy to contain the disease in addition to social connection and sharing free water, have increased domestic water consumption. Although the pandemic necessitated the return to water being delivered as a basic necessity to fight against the pandemic, the emphasis on ‘back to basics’ was not fully implemented. This is because some urban households that could not pay water bills prior to the free water supply were denied the COVID-19 pandemic free water package and rural households who relied on point sources also did not benefit from the package.Ahmad, S., Mirza, M., Ali, S. and Lotia, H. (2016) Analysing Household Water Demand in Urban Areas: Empirical Evidence from Faisalabad, the Industrial City of Pakistan, International Growth Centre, London.
Ansah, M. (2020) ‘Akufo-Addo announces partial lockdown of Accra, Kumasi, Tema to curb COVID-19 spread’, 27 March [online] <https://citinewsroom.com/2020/03/akufo-addo-announces-partial-lockdown-of-accra-kumasi-tema-to-curb-covid-19-spread/> [accessed 25 November 2021].
Aunger, R. and Curtis, V. (2016) ‘Behaviour centred design: towards an applied science of behaviour change’, Health Psychology Review 10: 425–46 <https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2016.1219673>.
Bandura, A. (2004) ‘Health promotion by social cognitive means’, Health Education & Behavior 31: 143–64 <https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1090198104263660>.
Bandura, A. and Walters, R.H. (1977) Social Learning Theory, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Cairncross, S. and Shordt, K. (2004) ‘It does last! Some findings from a multi-country study of hygiene sustainability’, Waterlines 22(3): 4–7 <https://doi.org/10.3362/0262-8104.2004.003>.
Coltart, C.E., Lindsey, B., Ghinai, I., Johnson, A.M. and Heymann, D.L. (2017) ‘The Ebola outbreak, 2013–2016: old lessons for new epidemics’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 372: 20160297 <https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0297>.
Cooper, R. (2020) ‘Water for the urban poor and Covid-19’ [online], Department for International Development <https://reliefweb.int/report/world/water-urban-poor-and-covid-19> [accessed 17 March 2022].
Desai, A.N. and Patel, P. (2020) ‘Stopping the spread of COVID-19’, JAMA 323: 1516 <https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.4269>.
Enwereji, P.C. and Uwizeyimana, D. (2019) ‘Enhancing payment for municipal services through communication dynamics and emerging innovation options’, Journal of Gender, Information and Development in Africa (JGIDA) 8(2): 195–226 <https://doi.org/10.31920/2050-4284/2019/SIn2a12>.
Fielmua, N. (2018) ‘Financial performance of community-managed small-town water systems in north-western Ghana’, Waterlines 37(2): 132–54 <https://doi.org/10.3362/1756-3488.17-00022>.
Fielmua, N. and Dongzagla, A. (2020) ‘Independent water pricing of small town water systems in Ghana’, Heliyon 6: e04299 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04299>.
Ghana Statistical Service (2021a) 2020 Population and Housing Census: Field Officers Manual [online], Ghana Statistical Service, Accra <https://census2021.statsghana.gov.gh/gssmain/fileUpload/pressrelease/2021%20PHC_Field%20Officers%20Manual_05.05.2021.pdf> [accessed 23 March 2022].
Ghana Statistical Services (2021b) Ghana 2021 Population and Housing Census, Volume 1, Preliminary Report, Ghana Statistical Service, Accra.
Ghana Statistical Services and UNDP (2020) Brief on COVID-19 Local Economies Tracker Wave 1 [online] <https://statsghana.gov.gh/covidtracker/Local_econ_Brief_29_09_2020.pdf> [accessed 23 March 2022].
Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) (2020) ‘Additional 3 months free water’ [online], GWCL, Accra <https://www.modernghana.com/news/1018792/additional-3months-free-water-supply-begins-with.html> [accessed 23 March 2022].
Gray, D.E. (2019) Doing Research in the Business World, Sage, London.
Grizzell, J. (2003) Behaviour Change Theories and Models: Relating to Health Promotion and Education Efforts, American College Health Association, Silver Spring, MD.
Hassell, T. and Cary, J. (2007) Promoting Behavioural Change in Household Water Consumption: Literature Review, report prepared for Smart Water Fund <https://waterwise.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Smart-Water-2007_Promoting-Behavioural-Change-in-Household-Water-Consumption.pdf> [accessed 22 March 2022].
Jorgensen, B., Graymore, M. and O’Toole, K. (2009) ‘Household water use behavior: an integrated model’, Journal of Environmental Management 91: 227–36 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.08.009>.
Kauta, N.J., Groenewald, J., Arnolds, D., Blankson, B., Omar, A., Naidu, P., Naidoo, M. and Chu, K.M. (2020) ‘WhatsApp mobile health platform to support fracture management by non-specialists in South Africa’, Journal of the American College of Surgeons 230: 37–42 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2019.09.008>.
Mills, J.E. and Cumming, O. (2016) The Impact of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene on Key Health and Social Outcomes [pdf], Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity (SHARE) and UNICEF <https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2017-07/WASHEvidencePaper_HighRes_01.23.17_0.pdf> [accessed 17 March 2022].
Pandey, R., Gautam, V., Pal, R., Bandhey, H., Dhingra, L.S., Sharma, H., Jain, C., Bhagat, K., Patel, L. and Agarwal, M. (2020) ‘A machine learning application for raising WASH awareness in the times of Covid-19 pandemic’, arXiv:2003.07074.
Phipps, M., Ozanne, L.K., Luchs, M.G., Subrahmanyan, S., Kapitan, S., Catlin, J.R., Gau, R., Naylor, R.W., Rose, R.L. and Simpson, B. (2013) ‘Understanding the inherent complexity of sustainable consumption: a social cognitive framework’, Journal of Business Research 66: 1227–34 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.08.016>.
Stoker, S., McDaniel, D., Crean, T., Maddox, J., Jawanda, G., Krentz, N., Best, J., Speicher, M. and Siwiec, R. (2020) ‘Effect of shelter-in-place orders and the COVID-19 pandemic on orthopaedic trauma at a community level II trauma center’, Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma 34: e336-e342 <https://dx.doi.org/10.1097%2FBOT.0000000000001860>.
Szabo, A. (2015) ‘The value of free water: analyzing South Africa’s free basic water policy’, Econometrica 83: 1913–61 <https://doi.org/10.3982/ECTA11917>.
Tortajada, C. (2010) ‘Water governance: a research agenda’, International Journal of Water Resources Development 26: 309–16 <https://doi.org/10.1080/07900621003683322>.
WHO (2020) Interim Recommendations on Obligatory Hand Hygiene Against Transmission of COVID-19 [online] <https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/interim-recommendations-on-obligatory-hand-hygiene-against-transmission-of-covid-19> [accessed 22 March 2022].
WHO (2021) ‘COVID-19 weekly epidemiological updates and weekly operational updates’, December 2021 <https://covid19.who.int/region/afro/country/gh> [accessed 3 December 2021].
Self-supply groundwater in five communities: Moshie Zongo, Aboabo, Kotei, Ayeduase and Apemso in Kumasi Metropolis, Ghana
Bakobie, Noel
Essandoh, Helen M.K.
Oduro-Kwarteng, Sampson
Appiah-Adjei, Emmanuel Kwame
Ahammad, Shaikh Ziauddin
Chakma, Sumedha
Heliyon, Vol. 10 (2024), Iss. 1 P.e23823
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23823 [Citations: 2]COVID-19 brought the water struggles in Ghana into our homes in Canada: Collective emotions and WASH struggles in distant locations during health emergencies
Nunbogu, Abraham Marshall
Elliott, Susan J.
Health & Place, Vol. 83 (2023), Iss. P.103099
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2023.103099 [Citations: 3]The limits and impact of communication and context in implementing social interventions in a pandemic: Ghana's free water policy revisited
Abubakari, Maliha
Agyemang, Fred Yeboah
Tei, Felix
Social Sciences & Humanities Open, Vol. 7 (2023), Iss. 1 P.100483
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2023.100483 [Citations: 0]
- A call to action: organizational, professional, and personal change for gender transformative WASH programming
- Providing municipal faecal sludge management services: lessons from Bangladesh
- Menstrual hygiene management: education and empowerment for girls?
- Webwatch
- Transgender-inclusive sanitation: insights from South Asia
Browse our other journals
