The acting Chief Executive of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), Clement Bugase, says over 76 per cent  of rural communities in Ghana will get access  to potable drinking water by 2015.

According to him, the national coverage for rural water supply currently stands at 58.97 per cent and attributed the success story of his outfit to what he described as “the implementation of good policies of CWSA”.

Mr Bugase gave the overview of the performance of CWSA at the 2009 annual review conference in Tamale last Monday.

The conference was on the theme “Monitoring and Evaluation for Sustainable Delivery of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion”.

The five-day 2009 annual review conference which brought together more than twenty participants across the country also touched on the role of CWSA in monitoring and evaluating of rural water and sanitation across the nation.

In a remark, Mr Bugase noted that CWSA will explore the setting up of a rehabilitation fund in which 20 per cent replacement cost shall be set aside for the renovation and expansion of obsolete machines of CWSA to ensure the smooth implementation of policies on potable water supply.

To ensure effective management of the fund, Mr Bugase stressed that the CWSA in consultation with the ministry of water resources, works and housing shall appoint a fund manager.

Mr Clement Bugase added that there was the need for CWSA to work hand in hand with mobile telecommunication service providers so as to enable residents report on the spot information on the status of facilities that use zonal/restrictive call concepts.

He added that Wide Area Network (WAN), Virtual Private Network (VPN) and other communication technologies be deployed at the head office and regional to facilitate the timely transfer of information.

The acting chief executive of CWSA called on the agency to use all means available to ensure that the monitoring and evaluation framework is rolled out by the end of the year, “hoping that, it will strengthen the agency’s monitoring and evaluation facilities and processes under the NCWSP”.

The deputy Minister for Water Resource, Works and Housing, Hon Hannah Louisa Bissiw, who was the guest of honour, commended the CWSA for the improvement in the delivery of quality water to the rural poor, saying, “It was a good practice to meet and review performance in relation to targets that were set”.

She noted that monitoring and evaluation play crucial role in ensuring sustainability of the facilities and urged management of CWSA to come out with innovative measures that will enable targets to be met at minimal cost.

STORY: FROM HAMZA LANSAH LOLLY, TAMALE