Water suppliers discuss how to bring in the private sector

African water suppliers gathered in the Ghanaian capital, Accra on Monday to consider how partnerships with the private sector could improve management efficiency and pump new investment into the continent's failing water and sewerage systems. Two thirds of all Africans lack access to clean drinking water. The problem is equally as serious in fast expanding towns and cities as it is in remote villages. "We should double the current performance of our water delivery systems to meet the UN Millennium Developmental Goals (MDGs). Investments in water delivery are enormous. Government alone cannot achieve this," Ghana's Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, told the opening session of the five-day meeting. "This congress should consider how best to define partnerships between the private and the public sector in achieving this goal," he added. This is the first time that the Union of Africa Water Suppliers is holding its 12th biennial congress in Ghana, whose dilapidated water delivery systems urgently need to be overhauled. About half of the state-owned Ghana Water Company's daily production of 120 million gallons is lost through leaks and unpaid bills. Like other African countries, Ghana is grappling with a rapid increase in its urban population, poor management in parastatal companies and an obsolete water supply infrastructure. The government has drawn up a US $1.6 billion investment plan to provide safe drinking water to the entire populalation by 2015, but says the private sector will have to foot some of the bill by assuming a prominent role in what has until now been a 100 percent state-owned sector. "Presentations will be made at the congress. Questions will be asked and we will all then be interested in finding out the various achievements, both technical and managerial, that countries like Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal have clocked in their water delivery systems, which can be replicated," Congress President Samuel Gerald Lamptey told IRIN on Monday. Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal both have efficient water supply companies which are run as concessions by French utilities. The four-day congress comes up at a time when African leaders, have promised to tackle the continent's water and sanitation problems through the New Partnership For Africa's Development (NEPAD). Many of the opening speeches at the congress focused on the need to introduce private-public partnerships in order to improve water delivery systems on the continent. Ghana's Minister for Works and Housing, Alhaji Mustafa Idriss, whose Ministry is responsible for water supply, said governments would have to partner with the private sector in the broadest sense in order to make the huge investments required. "Partnerships should not only look at the supply of water but also at the handling and management of the river and water sources," he said. The Congress will discuss in some detail the thorny issue of how such partnerships should be managed. Ghana, for instance, has had to delay the implementation of a World Bank project to restructure the water sector because of a public outcry at the prospect of increased water charges. "Ideologists claim they are crying for the poor. But presently, the poor are paying much more for water from private water groups. We need to go ahead with these private-public partnerships if that is what will guarantee us continued supplies of clean water," Lamptey, who is the head of the Ghana Water Company, told IRIN.