(3cs) use of the africlay filter. they also build and disseminate hand-washing stations and sanitation facilities throughout villages in the northern region. phw is a partnered organization of innovations for poverty action. saha global saha global (formerly known as community water solutions) is a boston, massachusetts-based nonprofit founded in 2008 that aims to meet the water and energy needs of ghanaian communities in the northern region. saha global works to empower the women of rural ghanaian communities to provide access to clean water and electricity through the provision of business opportunities. this is accomplished by bringing young leaders from throughout the world to ghana through its global leadership program. while in ghana, participants train local women to build businesses which can channel revenue back into their local communities. as of 2016, 84 clean water businesses and 20 solar electric businesses have been created with the aid of saha global, and 100% of these businesses are in full operation to date. water.org water.org is an american and international nonprofit developmental aid organization designed to deliver access to safe water and sanitation around the world by pioneering innovative and sustainable solutions to the global water crisis. this organization was founded in 1990 after the merging of two water ngos: h2o africa, co-founded by matt damon, and waterpartners, co-founded by gary white. through its efforts in making water and sanitation safe, accessible and cost-effective, water.org has continued to deliver aid to more than four million lives around the world for over 25 years. currently, water.org is working in two rural areas in ghana: volta region and upper east region. these districts are among the poorest of the country, with less than half of the population having little access to safe drinking water and fewer families having access to improved sanitation. additionally, the rural communities in these regions suffer greatly from waterborne diseases, including diarrhea. water.org works with local communities and partner organizations, such as rural aid, to construct wells, latrines and biosand filters in ghana as well as to provide health and hygiene education. efficiency of utilities non-revenue water according to the water sector restructuring secretariat non-revenue water in urban areas stands at approximately 50% of the produced water, i.e. it is lost, among other things, due to leakage and illegal connections. according to a ghanaian radio station, a survey showed that 3,000 out of 15,000 connections were illegal while 20 minor leaks were found. furthermore, most of those connected to water supply do not pay their bills. at least at the end of the 1990s, the ghanaian government participated in that poor payment culture. as part of the efforts to reduce system losses, in february 2008 the accra east region of avrl-gwcl has caused the arrest of ten illegal connection syndicates in the adenta community. they had constructed huge underground reservoirs which served as a source of water for private water tanker operators. the tanker operators buy water from these illegal sources and sell it to private individuals at ashaley botwe at high prices. labor productivity it is estimated that in 2010, gwcl had 7.2 per 1,000 connections. this figure is in line with regional levels. however, international good practice is less than 4 employees per 1,000 connections. financial aspects tariffs and cost recovery water tariffs in ghana are too low to recover the costs of the service. water tariffs in rural areas tend to be higher than in urban areas. urban areas. in december 2015 the regulator purc approved a 67.2% increase in urban water tariffs. tariffs were increased from ghs1.78/m3 ($0.45/m3) to ghs3.01/m3 (us$0.76/m3). the average monthly bill for a family of five will reach ghs10.00 ($2.50). ghana water had requested a 400% tariff increase to fully cover costs, but the regulator had pared down the request substantially, citing concerns about affordability. between 1990 and 1997, the average water tariff in ghana's urban areas had been in the range of us$0.10 to us$0.15 per m³. at that time, the government was not willing to approve major tariff increases. the situation changed with the creation of the regulatory agency purc which autonomously examines and approves public service tariffs, resulting in an average water tariff of about us$0.50 in 2004. in 2006, gwcl's tariff for the first 20m³ consumed was us$0.55 per m³, whereas us$0.76 were charged for each m³ exceeding 20m³ within a month. subsequently, the usd equivalent of tariffs decreased again with the local currency losing in value. rural areas. according to the cwsa's policy, the water tariff in rural areas should recover the supply cost of the service, including operation, maintenance, major repairs, replacements, and extension to new areas. tariffs are set by the district assemblies in rural areas. however, the supply cost should be low enough to not result in a tariff of more than us$1 per m³. a study conducted in five community-managed piped systems in the ashanti region found an average tariff of about us$0.60 per m³ in 2003, which actually covers between 57 and 77% of the full supply cost. another study which was carried out in 2005 indicates an average monthly expenditure for water of us$0.99 in 97 sample villages in the volta region and us$0.89 in 103 villages in the brong ahafo region per household. however, in nearly 70% of the villages in volta and only 40% of the villages in brong ahafo, at least 90% of the interviewed households actually paid for water. where water use is charged, it is done through a fixed system or a pay-as-you-fetch system. investment and financing since economic efficiency as well as cost recovery in the sector are extremely low, financing water and sanitation investments in ghana relies heavily on external funding. according to one estimate 90% of the total investment in the sector in the 1990s was made by external agencies, which contributed about us$500 million for the sector between 1990 and 2003. it is worth mentioning that sanitation generally receives much less attention. according to another estimate, more than 96% of expected financing in 2006 will be from external donors. despite the strong engagement of international donors, funding remains insufficient to achieve the millennium development goals for water and sanitation, aiming at halving the share of the population without access to these services by 2015 compared to 1990. according to one estimate, the expansion and rehabilitation of urban infrastructure requires investments of us$1.3 billion over an unspecified period. annual investment needs in water supply and sanitation are estimated by another source at us$150 million. expected investment funding for 2006 was us$85 million, or 57% of the needs. actual annual investments in urban areas have been estimated by the water sector restructuring secretariat at around us$40 million per year, having "recently" declined to only us$17 million per year (without specifying which year). the us$40m figure for urban areas corresponds to about us$4 per capita, an average level compared to other low-income countries. private investments were mobilized through a build-operate-transfer (bot) project for a seawater desalination plant in accra. the 25-year contract for the financing, construction and operation of a 60,000 cubic meter per day plant was awarded in 2012. water will be sold at us$1.36/cubic meter to gwcl, with a guarantee from the ministry of finance. the world bank subsidiary miga insures the package against political risk. funding comes from the south african standard bank (us$88.7m) and the shareholder abengoa water ($38.1m). gwcl ruled out further desalination projects citing the country's abundant water resources and the need to quickly find a solution for the quickly growing nungua area where the plant will be located. the international finance corporation (ifc) supports the asutsuare water treatment plant, a 500 million euro build, own, operate and transfer (boot) project with gwcl developed by the belgian contractor denys. it includes a water treatment plant with a capacity of 432,000 m3/day, located downstream from the kpong dam on the volta river and two pipelines, each of approximately 73 km to grand accra, as well as two water reservoirs. international cooperation major donors active in water supply and sanitation in ghana are the african development bank, canada, denmark, the eu commission, france, germany, japan, the netherlands, and the world bank. there is a multi-donor budgetary support mechanism, a water and sanitation sector group as well as joint sector annual review conferences between the government and its "development partners" (donors). african development bank the african development bank contributes to the accra sewerage improvement project (asip) with a loan of us$69 million, while the government of ghana provides us$8.6 million. the project was approved by the adb in 2006 and is expected to be implemented within five years. in this time, two treatment plants and eight pumping stations are expected to be built. moreover, sewerage networks and sanitation facilities will be extended and rehabilitated. the project also supports environmental measures, institutional strengthening, engineering services, and project management. canadian international development agency (cida) the canadian international development agency (cida) supports the water supply and sanitation sector in ghana's northern regions through three projects: cida contributes us$11 million to the gender-balanced district capacity building project (discap), which aims at strengthening local capacities to manage water and sanitation resources, thus enabling local government bodies to provide water supply and sanitation services. discap began in 2000 and will end in 2008. the agency provides us$16.4 million for the northern region water sanitation project (norwasp), which began in 1999 and is expected to end in 2009. the main objective of the gender-balanced project is to increase access to water and sanitation through a demand-driven approach. at the end of the project, up to 250,000 communities in the eastern corridor section of the northern region are expected to have access to safe drinking water, including 420 which independently manage their new water systems. the northern region small towns (norst) project, which is being implemented from 2004 to 2014, is supported by cida with us$30 million. the project is expected to establish water supply and sanitation services in up to 30 small towns. germany germany supports rural water supply and sanitation as part of its support for ghana's decentralization program. together with other donors germany supports the district development facility since 2009, established under the lead of the ministry of local government and rural development. until 2014, germany cofinances up to 36 million euros of a total 210 million euros. the remainder is financed by other donors and the ghanaian government, which provides a third of the funding. the district development facility provides funds to district assemblies that have to follow strict rules concerning transparency and accountability which are independently monitored. districts that manage their funds well also receive more funds. a previous rural water supply project supported by germany was rated satisfactorily in an ex-post evaluation conducted in 2005. the evaluation found, among other things, that three to eight years after their construction only 4 percent of the wells had fallen completely in disuse, while 76 percent were functioning and 20 percent were temporarily out of order. the evaluation also found that in 28 percent of water samples the iron content was high and that water from other sources than the wells built under the project was still used for various purposes, including drinking. world bank the world bank supports both rural and urban water supply in ghana. community water and sanitation program (cwsp) the second community water and sanitation program was initiated in 2000 with support of a world bank ida credit of us$21.9 million, aiming at increasing access and supporting effective and sustained use of improved community water supply and sanitation services in villages and small towns through a demand-driven approach. it built on lessons learned from the first community water and sanitation program which had been carried out from 1994 to 2000. a large-scale decentralization approach in the planning, implementation, and management of water supply and sanitation in ghana was one of the main characteristics of the second program. moreover, the communities were given technical assistance and hygiene education. gender-balanced water and sanitation committees were set up to actively engage and include ngos, private sector actors, and district assemblies. as a result of the program, which ended in 2004, nearly 800,000 people were provided with potable water and almost 6,000 households and 440 schools were provided with latrines. small towns water supply and sanitation