Parts of Africa do not suffer from water scarcity as South Africa does, but there is a lot to learn in delivering clean, potable water to the public.
Rand Water, which services about 12 million people in Gauteng, this week hosted Ghanaian minister of water resources Alban Bagbin. He was in the country to learn about and share ideas on how best to deliver water to the people.
Rand Water CEO Percy Sechemane said it costs them R8 billion a year to deliver blue drop water, top quality water, to Gauteng.
Though water was not a scarce resource in Ghana, Bagbin admitted that servicing it to the required quality and getting it to the citizens was an expensive exercise that needed improvement. He said wastage and pollution were the biggest headaches for his government.
Bagbin said: "Water is life. Quality of water is quality of life. But we don't see it in consumer attitudes.
"We need to realise that the provision of water is multi-sectoral. It involves sectors like agriculture and the chemicals they use and other sectors like mining. We can learn from South Africa in this instance," he said.
He said in urban areas Ghana had about 83 percent of the population receiving clean water. The national average is about 63 percent.
"We are looking at how we can together improve the service we give to our people. Rand Water is ahead, we are here to learn from their expertise and (possibly) fast-track what plans we have in place," Bagbin said.
"We are looking to meet the Millennium Development Gaols of 100 percent coverage of the population by 2014.
"We have invested R13 billion in water infrastructure but need only R6 billion to meet the MDG," Bagbin said.
He said Ghana had partnered with the Chinese, Israelis and Dutch in water infrastructure investment.
SA, Ghana share ideas on water provision
Parts of Africa do not suffer from water scarcity as South Africa does, but there is a lot to learn in delivering clean, potable water to the public.
Rand Water, which services about 12 million people in Gauteng, this week hosted Ghanaian minister of water resources Alban Bagbin. He was in the country to learn about and share ideas on how best to deliver water to the people.
Rand Water CEO Percy Sechemane said it costs them R8 billion a year to deliver blue drop water, top quality water, to Gauteng.
Though water was not a scarce resource in Ghana, Bagbin admitted that servicing it to the required quality and getting it to the citizens was an expensive exercise that needed improvement. He said wastage and pollution were the biggest headaches for his government.
Bagbin said: "Water is life. Quality of water is quality of life. But we don't see it in consumer attitudes.
"We need to realise that the provision of water is multi-sectoral. It involves sectors like agriculture and the chemicals they use and other sectors like mining. We can learn from South Africa in this instance," he said.
He said in urban areas Ghana had about 83 percent of the population receiving clean water. The national average is about 63 percent.
"We are looking at how we can together improve the service we give to our people. Rand Water is ahead, we are here to learn from their expertise and (possibly) fast-track what plans we have in place," Bagbin said.
"We are looking to meet the Millennium Development Gaols of 100 percent coverage of the population by 2014.
"We have invested R13 billion in water infrastructure but need only R6 billion to meet the MDG," Bagbin said.
He said Ghana had partnered with the Chinese, Israelis and Dutch in water infrastructure investment.
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