AN ASSESSMENT OF THE TRI-SECTOR PARTNERSHIP MODEL IN PRO-POOR WATER TARIFF COLLECTION AT DALUN, NORTHERN REGION GHANA

Despite the increasing cost of supplying potable water to poor rural communities under Public-Private partnership models, mainstream literature has very little to offer about the effectiveness of these and other emerging models in capacity building projects for local participation in the determination and collection of water tariffs. This study adopted the before-and-after and the cross-sectional study designs to assess the effectiveness of the Tri-sector Partnership model in pro-poor water tariff collection at Dalun in the Northern Region of Ghana. The study covered Dalun Station, Dalun Nayili Fon, and Dalun Kanbong Naa Fon of the Dalun community, which were randomly selected from a list of nine Tri-sector Partnership pilot zones in the area. Data was obtained from administered questionnaires, interviews and discussions, and analyzed with a combination of computer and manual methods. The findings indicated that before the Tri-sector Partnership intervention in Dalun, community participation in water tariff management was informal and about 92% of water tariffs remained in arrears. After the intervention, Community Boards were formed and legally recognized with capacity building initiatives, in partnership with the Ghana Water Company Ltd./ Aqua Vitens Rand Ltd. (as the public sector representative ), and the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) and Pragmatic Outcomes Incorporated (as the private sector partners). The participatory process led to the Water Boards getting involved in tariff determination, meter reading and tariff collection among others. This increased the proportion of collected water bills from 8% before the intervention to 29% after the intervention. Factors like high incidence of poverty and poor motivation of the Water were contributory to the inability to realize better performance. The study concluded that the intervention was not a complete failure. It however recommended the promotion of gender balance in the participatory process, the extension of the membership of the partnership and economic empowerment for sustainable water poverty reduction.