Rural water asset management practices in Ghana: the gaps and needs

Abstract This study evaluates primary and secondary data from two districts to assess the status of asset management practices, and to examine requirements for improved asset management. Asset inventory data shows that asset management practices in the districts are currently poor, leading to high rates of nonfunctionality and low service levels. The existing ‘fix on failure’ approach to water systems’ repair has become a common practice. However, many repairs which relied on ‘fix on failure’ were found to have delayed, often due to the length of time it takes to mobilise financial resources from ‘post‐paid’ water users. This paper contends that without an improved asset maintenance, system it is likely that rural water systems in Ghana will continue to provide unsustainable services. The Findings demonstrate that improving the current asset management practices is dependent on human and financial resources, access to timely water service monitoring data at district levels, and planning and budgeting regime to reflect life cycle costs of water systems.