Through Dan’s Eyes

Hi friends. This is an article I just wrote for the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers. Still in draft format. Let me know what you think.

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Buipe is the capital of the Central Gonja District in the Northern Region of Ghana. It was the place I called home when I first arrived in November 2008 to work with the Engineers Without Borders Governance & Rural Infrastructure Team.

I had arrived right at the beginning of the dry season. By February, most of the boreholes had dried up and many community members had no choice but to drink water from a nearby dugout pond. Soon after, Central Gonja recorded the highest number of Guinea Worm cases – a deadly water borne parasite worm infection – in all of Ghana.

One of my friends, Salifu, ingested the parasite. Over a 3 month time period, the worm grew inside his body to a length of 1 meter, and eventually pierced the skin just below his knee. More painful than this though was the fact that Salifu was not healthy enough to farm his land – his only source of income and food.

This story reflects the reality for many people in Ghana, but for the citizens of Buipe, the situation could have been different.

A year before I arrived, a small-town water system had been constructed in Buipe through a Government of France project to bring clean water to the community. A submerged pump in a high yielding borehole 1 km outside of town pumped safe water to a 125m³ stainless steel elevated water tank which distributed piped water to outlets located throughout town. A water board was formed to manage the water system. Water board members were trained on managing bank accounts for collection of user fees and procurement of replacements parts. Other water board members were trained on the technical aspects of operating and maintaining the system.

One month after commissioning the system, the control system malfunctioned. For four months the system sat idly, serving as a reminder to the people of Buipe that the solution had failed them. To make matters worse, there were heavy rains in June 2008 that flooded the pump house, control system, and standby generator, leaving them in disrepair.

Water System

It is now May 2010 and the Buipe water system is still not functioning. The district government installed a permanent electrical supply to the station and a UNICEF project funded the replacement of the pump and control system. Upon start-up, leaks were found throughout the system which will take more time and money to fix.

Citizens are excited about the repaired water system, but skeptical at the same time. If the system breaks, will it take another 2.5 years to fix? Even though the donor-funded project trained water board members to manage the finances, operations, and maintenance systems, these independent trainings were not sufficient to build the necessary lasting systems.

This story has been played out over and over again in Ghana. Donor-funded projects are implemented without addressing the underlying systems necessary for projects to be successful.

I worked for 3 years as a Project Manager at CH2M Hill Canada Limited, mostly within their wastewater division. Our clients were Canadian municipalities who would identify a need for an expansion, upgrade, or operational support at their wastewater treatment plant and create a request for proposal.

Consultants would bid on projects and the winning bid would enter into a contract to deliver the project.

This same process takes place in developing countries. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) identifies a need in a developing country and prepares a request for proposal. Canadian or international consulting companies bid and deliver the projects in countries like Ghana, often working through local district governments.

It is expected that short-term infrastructure projects will set up the necessary systems for the infrastructure to reach its expected lifespan. Most projects tag on capacity development programs to develop lasting systems, but end up facilitating isolated workshops that don’t provide the continuous support necessary to build long-term systems.

In Canada, government and private sector have evolved slowly over time, building the necessary management and technical systems to function. Projects are merely a mechanism of engagement between government and private sector to achieve mutually beneficial goals. If the underlying systems are not in place, projects are destined for failure.

There needs to be a paradigm shift in the way donors like CIDA support countries like Ghana. We need to have the patience and courage to support the long-term development of institutions rather than projects which define success as the number of boreholes drilled and number of trainings delivered. There is higher risk and ambiguity in this approach, but it is a path worth taking.

It will ultimately be Ghanaians who will drive development in Ghana. Engineers Without Borders is partnering with 6 districts in Ghana to develop effective district planning and implementation systems. We have embedded personnel that work directly with district staff to learn and develop skills to establish strong data management and information systems.

With more continuous partnerships, communities like Buipe will develop the necessary water systems to ensure safe water for its residence.

Every time I have a meeting with CIDA the same question is asked. How are you working yourself out of a job? This is a common question posed by donors, and it comes from a belief that development workers are playing a role that should be performed by local Ghanaians once their capacity is built. To me, this patronizing attitude marks everything that is wrong with development. So I often reply, why am I trying to work myself out of a job?

Donors are often referred to as development partners. Our good friend Mr. Oxford defines a partner as a “person sharing with another or others in an activity” and a partnership as a “group of two or more people working together”. I view my role in Ghana as a thought partner. On a daily basis, I sit around a table with my Ghanaian counterparts, flip chart paper and markers in hand, to hack through a problem. Each of us has a unique skill set and knowledge base, that when combined generates the necessary means to tackle complex problems.

So I come back to the same question, why am I trying to work myself out of a job? I am not training someone to think like me so that when I leave someone else can fill my gap. I rather view my role as bringing critical questions to complex issues that when combined with the critical thinking of my counterparts, produces workable solutions that can be tested and scaled if successful. When I leave Ghana, there will likely be someone else from the community, from Ghana, from Africa, or from another continent that will arrive and bring a completely different set of critical questions to tackling new complex issues in this dynamic environment.

After doing something naughty as a kid, were you ever told by your mom or dad to go to your room? I recall this happening all too often. At the time I thought it was my parents’ way of punishing me. But I soon realized it was a stalling tactic that provided time for my parents to discuss the case and make their final verdict together.

Decision making is challenging when more than 1 person is involved in the process. Governments have no easy task in making decisions on behave of millions of people. Complicating matters is the often lack of clarity in who should be making decisions. Even in Canada with clearly defined roles between the national, provincial, and municipal governments, there are still grey areas of decision-making that create tension.

Ghana has a decentralized governance system, and accordingly to the legislated acts, decisions are made at a district level. The assumption is that a governing body close to communities will be in a better position to make informed decisions that benefit the constituency. However, most money flows through the national government due to a non-existent localized taxation system, so decision-making is partly centralized. You can imagine the problem this creates. Decision making is supposed to be in the hands of the districts, but with no enforcement mechanism, there’s a constant battle for resources. The current political party in power has prioritized sanitation and is rolling out a national sanitation program, a service that is supposed to be the responsibility of the district. What levels of government are in the best position to make informed decisions on services and infrastructure such as health, education, water, sanitation, and roads?

Being embedded within different levels of government, our team is asking this very question. From what I have observed, education is best understood close to the ground. Local district offices understand conditions in communities and have the knowledge on where to site new schools and train/incentivize teachers in areas where quality of education is poor. Roads infrastructure, on the other hand, is best planned across a larger economic zone where road networks can be constructed to facilitate access to markets. If roads were planned at a district level, you’d end up with a fragmented network of roads leading nowhere.

Part of the SADA strategy I’m involved with for developing Northern Ghana includes a ring road that cuts across the three northern regions. SADA is assessing the right mix of public infrastructure (roads, electrical networks, water dams/reservoirs) and private sector investment (sugar cane, rice, economic tree crops) that will accelerate development in Northern Ghana. This type of planning could likely not be achieved at district level.

So back to the question of who should make what decisions. With many people vying for power at multiple levels of government and across different sectors, the delineation of decision-making is no easy task, but a necessary one to ensure resources are effectively prioritized.

Current Water Situation

In Canada, rarely does a critical service like municipal water fail. Redundancy is built into the design to ensure standby equipment is ready when the active equipment fails. This is not the case in the Central Gonja District of Ghana where I am currently working. Two kilometers outside the district capital, Buipe, a broken-down water system lays dormant, flooded in water.

Flooded Buipe Water System

Located in a geologically suitable location, this borehole can yield up to 500 liters per second. One submersible pump transfers clean drinking water to an overhead tank close to town which provides the pressure necessary for piped connections at fifteen locations spaced evenly throughout town. Since July of 2008, the Buipe town water system has not been functioning. The system was damaged beyond repair from extreme flooding during the rainy season and the 10,000 villagers have been utilizing other wells and boreholes in the interim. These sources are now drying up as the middle of the dry season approaches. Villagers are drinking water straight from the Black Volta River, or small dams that hold stagnant water all year round.

Borehole being used by the community until it runs dry

Guinea Worm

Guinea worm thrives in open stagnant water, and villagers who drink this water have a higher chance of swallowing the guinea worm egg. Once inside the human body, the egg finds a home to rest. A couple of months later, the egg hatches and the worm starts its journey through the body. At around four months, the victim starts to feel sharp pains where the worm resides. Eventually, the thin 2-foot long worm penetrates the skin and pokes its head. It is slowly removed with the hope that it comes out easily and in one piece. If the worm wraps itself around vital arteries, the disease can be fatal. But more often than not, the painful disease renders the patient idle for three or four months, normally around harvest time. If subsistent farmers are unable to work their fields, it is likely they won’t grow enough food to meet the basic dietary needs of their family, thus continuing the cycle of poverty that caused the guinea worm to occur in the first place.

UNICEF I-WASH Project

A UNICEF project called I-WASH is currently operating in the district and has the goal of eradicating guinea worm in Ghana, which is one of five countries in the world that has yet to do so. The Northern Region is the guinea worm epicenter of Ghana, home to 95% of all recorded cases, and the Central Gonja District has the most recorded cases in the region. Activities range from gathering baseline data, supplying endemic communities with ceramic filters, promoting community-led total sanitation (CLTS) initiatives, and hiring dam guards to ensure villagers are filtering the water.

Restoring the Water System

Representatives from the district and regional governments, a local engineering consulting firm, and UNICEF were brought together to resolve the Buipe water problem. We met at the borehole location and started to discuss feasible technical solutions. It was energizing to be part of a brainstorming session with local water experts who were articulating technically-sound solutions. My experience with water projects at CH2M Hill in Canada proved useful. I was familiar with the engineering design, procurement, and construction terminology that was being used and was able to contribute ideas. I was surprised at how similar the processes were to Canada. At the end of the meeting, we decided on a two-phase approach. The first phase was to immediately repair the generator, flush and disinfect the borehole, and replace the pump if inoperable. These were the essential tasks to get the system back up and running. The second phase and long-term solution was to relocate the control panel and generator to higher ground across the river, and to raise the borehole to an elevation above the flood level. A nearby village had not witnessed a flood of this magnitude since the 1960s and we used this info to ascertain the flood to be a 50-year storm. The team was satisfied that raising the borehole to this height was an acceptable design basis. Not exactly following the scientific rigor I’m used to in Canada, but was the best use of available data.

Technical brainstorming session with local water experts

With the technical solution established, I thought the wheels were in motion to execute the agreed upon action items. Development reality struck me hard at that point, as it was apparent that the previous delay in refurbishing the water system was not from a lack of technical solutions but the lack of political or donor will. UNICEF was willing to fund all aspects of the refurbishment except the electrical supply including generator and re-connection to the grid. At the same time, the district was not willing to release what little it had left in its internal budget, which had been ear-marked for other projects. The local Buipe Water Board was supposed to collect user fees from residents, but the level of supervision and management only supported enough funds to pay for minor repairs and not major system overhauls. UNICEF was looking for commitment and ownership from the district, and the district was looking for more support from UNICEF. Neither party at the table was willing to budge, nor likely having to drink water directly from the dam. Only those whose voices could not be heard were likely in that predicament.

Woman collecting water from the nearby open dam

Moving Forward

It is a common for donors to prefer funding new infrastructure which can easily be captured in a ribbon cutting ceremony or photo which can appease decision makers from above. Retrofitting and maintaining existing infrastructure does not receive this same prestige and glow. Operation and maintenance is typically left in the hands of the district government which does not have the money or institutional capacity to make the systems function. A culture of maintenance is required at both the donor and government level to ensure the full utilization and effectiveness of existing infrastructure.

I am confident the wheels are now at least rolling to get the Buipe water system back up and running. The director of the district has taken it upon himself to resolve the issue. However, it is still an uphill climb and will likely take another four months until issues get resolved at which time the peak of the dry season will have passed and villagers will have had to persevere through an entire dry season with poor drinking water. An entire dry season that they will be more susceptible to guinea worm, the one disease the project is aiming to eradicate.