CWSA –NR aspires to be the leading rural water utility organization in Northern, North East and Savannah Regions contributing to the economic growth and prosperity of the people.

CWSA-NR is dedicated to the effective and efficient delivery of safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable water services to all rural communities and small towns in Northern, North East and Savannah Regions.

CWSA-NR commits itself to the following values in meeting the Mission and Vision statements:

• Water provision
• Water related Sanitation services
• Hygiene promotion

The services rendered by CWSA-NR were anchored on the National Community Water and Sanitation Programme (NCWSP) which came into effect in 1994. The overall goal of the NCWSP was to improve public health and the economic well-being of rural and small communities. The Community Ownership and Management (COM) concept has been the underlying sustainability pillar which requires beneficiary communities to own and manage rural water facilities. However, the concept has been fraught with challenges which has negatively impacted on the sustainability of rural water facilities. These challenges therefore necessitated the initiation of the reform in the rural water and sanitation sub sector by the CWSA.

CWSA-NR, under the CWSA Reform, which commenced in 2017 in response to the challenges encountered under the COM concept, is directly managing 7 small town water supply systems spread across the three regions. Six (6) new water supply systems constructed under the IDA financed Additional Financing Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project (AF-SRWSP), will come under its management at the beginning of April 2020. With modalities completed for the management of the Bunkprugu water system, CWSA-NR will be directly responsible for the management of fourteen (14) small town water systems in the three regions by the end of year 2020. The management process will be progressively pursued to bring onboard all small town Water Systems in the three regions.

The regional office has created a support mechanism for the sustainable management of about 5557 Boreholes fitted with hand pumps across the 29 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the three regions. In line with this, CWSA-NR will identify, train and support Area Mechanics to directly assist communities to operate their borehole water facilities.

The distribution of the small town water systems as being managed by CWSA in the Northern, North East and Savannah Regions are provided in the table below:

The Northern Region (North East, Savannah and Northern) which occupies an area of about 70,383 square kilometers, is the largest region in Ghana in terms of land area. Geographically the Region is located between Latitude 80 30’N and 100 30’ and stretches from longitude 00 30’E to 20 45’W. It shares boundaries with the Upper East and the Upper West Regions to the North, the Brong Ahafo and the Volta Regions to the south, and the two neighbouring countries of the Republic of Togo to the east, and La Cote d’Ivoire to the west.

The Northern Region has a projected 2020 population of 2,056,208 at 2.9% growth rate. North East and Savannah regions have projected 2020 population of 618,887 and 624,883 respectively (NPRCU, 2019). Rural population served as at 2019 was 1,848,712 representing 61.26% (CWSA DiMES, 2020).

The land is mostly low lying except in the north-eastern corner where we have the Gambaga escarpment and also along the western corridor. The region is drained by the Black and White Voltas and their tributaries of: the Nasia, Dakar and Oti rivers

The climate of the region is relatively dry, with a single rainy season that begins in May and ends in October. The amount of rainfall recorded annually varies between 750 mm and 1050 mm. The dry season starts in November and ends in March/ April with maximum temperatures occurring towards the end of the dry season (March – April) and minimum temperatures in December and January.

The main vegetation is classified as vast areas of grassland, interspersed with guinea savannah woodland, characterised by drought-resistant trees such as acacia, baobab, shea nut, dawadawa, mango, neem, etc.

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The regional office operates in 29 MMDAs in the three regions; Savannah, North East and Northern, through the provision of safe water and hygiene and sanitation services promotion. The Agency has facilitated the construction of 5557 Boreholes fitted with hand pumps and 118 Small & Limited Mechanized Schemes across all MMDAs (CWSA-NR DiMES, 2019).

Activities in the region have been anchored on certain innovative technological advancements. These technological innovations have been in the area of sanitation services delivery, power supply to water systems, payroll, billing models, payment for water at stand posts among others. The ultimate goal of applying technology and innovation in the service delivery chain is to enhance productivity, improve customer satisfaction and ensure efficiency in the activities of the Agency in the region.

Hybrid Pumps and use of Solar Energy

Under the AF-SRWSP, the region has adopted the use of hybrid pumps on all water sources. These pumps are able to use power from both national grid and solar. In an environment where the sun shines about 70% of the time in a full year, the reliance on such pumps is expected to help reduce the burden of having to pay for expensive electricity bills. The technology also ensures that, at every point in time there will be power available to stir the pumps to produce water. This is due to the dual energy supply, thus minimizing water system down time attributable to failure of power sources.

SmartTap
Water vending at standpipes have over the years been fraught with challenges relating to water losses through negligence and theft, high levels of Non-Revenue Water (NRW), unavailability of vendors at certain times of the day, and the use of different measuring units among others. These challenges have blighted the prospects of generating enough revenue from standpipes.

In response to this challenge, CWSA-NR adopted the smartTap technology for all stand pipes constructed in six small towns under the AF-SRWSP. The smartTap is an off-grid water dispensing and management system which enables revenue collection, water entitlement and sustainable water provision. With this technology, consumers will be able to use a token to access any quantity of water at any standpipe within the community by placing the token on a sensor on the smartTap. The credits for water access is pre-loaded onto tokens and used by householders to access water at any given time without any of the challenges indicated above.

Billing Software

The region has adopted a user-friendly billing software for billing of water customers. This innovation allows water meter readings to be taken electronically via a mobile device and automatically communicated unto a dashboard. The system does the calculation based on the transmitted reading and generates a customer bill. This system was instituted to minimize the human errors which often arise from manually generating bills for customers as well as inject efficiency into the billing system.

Digni-Loo Latrines

Open defecation has become a public health menace in Ghana and in the regions where CWSA-NR operates, there is the need for a concerted effort to encourage people to build and use latrines. Most households do not have adequate resources to construct their latrines without support. In view of this, CWSA-NR has promoted household latrine construction by supporting householders with digni-loo latrines for installation, construction and use.
Digni-Loo is a fabricated slab and drum based rubber sub-structure toilet which is fitted into a 2ft 4inch diameter pit with any depth depending on the nature of soil. What is required of the householder is the digging of the pit and the construction of the super structure.

CWSA-NR with support from the AF-SRWSP has distributed and ensured the construction and use of 1,332 digni-loo toilets with a further 1,155 at various stages of completion. Twenty-Six (26) Open Defecation Free status (ODF) have been declared in communities with digni-loo latrines as at the end of January 2020.

Regional stakeholder collaboration is key for effective service delivery and as such CWSA-NR has developed a good working partnership with stakeholders within the region. These include but not limited to:
i. Regional Coordinating Council (NR, NER & SaR)
ii. Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs)
iii. Environmental Health Directorate
iv. Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL)
v. UNICEF
vi. World Vision
vii. PumpTech Ltd
viii. WaterAid
ix. Afram Plains Development Organization