Head Office of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), Accra, Ghana - Photo credit: CWSA (2023)
Personal reflections on lessons for leadership, professionalisation, and accountability in rural water
Published on: 30/07/2025
Over the last weekend, I came across the Independent Water Commission’s 2025 report on the state of the water sector in England and Wales. To put it bluntly: it’s devastating. After decades of privatisation, the Commission has concluded that the sector is ’broken’: infrastructure has been neglected, sewage pollutes rivers, bills continue to soar, and public trust is eroding.
As I was reading, I couldn’t help but think about Ghana. Last month, I’ve been going through the report from the Rural Water Utilitisation Project (R-WUP)—a bold, ongoing reform of rural water services. And because I’m actively looking for inspiring reform cases to feature at the All Systems Symposium Africa in Kigali 2026, Ghana’s journey caught my attention.
The contrast is striking: while England’s water model is collapsing under its own weight, Ghana is cautiously—but ambitiously—reforming its rural water system. The two cases are worlds apart, but England’s failure offers valuable lessons for Ghana’s success.
Ghana’s rural water reform, especially through R-WUP, is one of the most interesting transformation processes on the continent right now. It’s trying to solve long-standing challenges: fragmented management, underfinanced systems, and unreliable services. But like any big reform, the road is not without bumps.
Here’s what stands out:
The ambition is there, but the questions are real. And that’s exactly where the lessons from England come in.
1. Professionalisation without blind privatisation: A better bet—if clearly defined
Ghana hasn’t rushed into wholesale privatisation of rural water services as some countries have. Instead, it has allowed multiple models to operate in parallel: community-managed systems, private providers under local agreements, and now CWSA as an emerging public utility.
The Revised National Water Policy (2020) explicitly acknowledges the role of the private sector in rural water service delivery. Under the PPP section for community water services, it sets out ways to engage non-state actors. Realistically, Ghana’s model will likely be a blend of public and private participation—but the parameters and integration are not yet fixed.
England’s collapse is a warning: without clear regulatory boundaries and public interest safeguards, mixed models can drift into fragmented oversight, uneven performance, and public mistrust.
Lesson: Whatever the mix of providers, the model must be anchored in enforceable standards for affordability, transparency, and water quality. Diversity of providers should be a strength, not a patchwork of unequal service.
2. Regulation must be unified and empowered
England’s crisis is compounded by fragmented regulation: oversight of the economy, environment, and water quality is spread across multiple bodies—none of which has the full picture or the authority to act decisively.
Ghana faces a similar situation. The Water Resources Commission (WRC) legislates on water resources, abstraction, buffer zones, and international laws on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) sets standards and regulates packaged water. The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) sets standards for drinking water. The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) regulates tariffs, service quality, and performance—primarily for urban water. The State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) oversees and administers the state’s interests in state-owned enterprises, including CWSA.
With so many actors, there is no coherent regulatory spine to integrate these mandates into a single, accountable framework—especially for the rural water sub-sector.
Lesson: Build an integrated, well-resourced regulatory system that can oversee all providers—public, private, and hybrid—on service performance, tariff fairness, water quality, and equity. Without it, accountability will continue to slip through the cracks.
3. Deferred maintenance is deferred collapse
In England, operators are paying out dividends while deferring infrastructure investment. The result? Crumbling pipes, failing sewers, and expensive emergency fixes.
In Ghana, many systems inherited by CWSA are already in poor shape. Without urgent investment in preventive maintenance and asset management, professionalisation risks being derailed by breakdowns.
Lesson: Make asset renewal and preventive maintenance a non-negotiable priority, backed by dedicated financing and digital tools like mWater.
4. Reforms need political courage, not just technical plans
In England, successive governments have treated water as a technical issue, avoiding tough political choices until the crisis has exploded into full view.
In Ghana, the reform enjoys political support but still lacks the legal framework and long-term financing commitments to secure it for the future.
Lesson: Political will must be institutionalised through law, budget, and formal accountability mechanisms. Reforms require consistency in vision and fundamentals across political cycles.
5. Without consumer trust, the system will fail
England’s consumers are losing faith in the system as prices rise and services deteriorate. Transparency is weak, and there is little recourse for complaints.
In Ghana, R-WUP is rightly pushing for customer service, billing reform, and transparency. But trust is fragile—especially in communities accustomed to lower-cost community-managed water, or those sceptical about state-run efficiency.
Lesson: Build a culture of service, not just of cost recovery. Customer charters, complaint redress systems, and public reporting should be part of the utility’s DNA.
6. Scale through learning—not haste
England has scaled dysfunction. Ghana has the chance to scale learning. R-WUP is testing professional management, digital billing, and customer service in the Western Region before expanding.
But success in one context doesn’t guarantee success in all.
Lesson: Don’t roll out reforms as a one-size-fits-all blueprint. Scale by adapting to local realities, embedding lessons at each step.
Reading England’s report is a reminder: it’s not enough to change who runs the system. You have to change how the system is governed, regulated, financed, and trusted.
Professionalisation is not just about hiring capable people. It’s about aligning power, responsibility, and accountability in the public interest.
Ghana hasn’t yet “chosen a path” in the strict sense—it’s testing models. But that’s not a weakness. It’s a chance to build a hybrid model deliberately, with clear rules, transparent oversight, and equity at the core.
This is why the Rural Water Utilitisation Project (R-WUP) team will join us at the Africa All Systems Leadership Symposium in Kigali, July 2026—to share their experience, their challenges, and their ambition. Ghana’s journey will fuel the conversations on leadership, professionalisation, regulation, accountability, and strategic public finance that are at the heart of Africa’s transformation agenda.
Join us in Kigali to be part of this critical conversation. For countries embarking on systemic reforms like Ghana, this is an opportunity to exchange experiences, build coalitions, and strengthen our collective commitment to systems that deliver.
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while England's water model is collapsing under its own weight, Ghana is cautiously—but ambitiously—reforming its rural water system
it's not enough to change who runs the system. You have to change how the system is governed, regulated, financed, and trusted.
It's about aligning power, responsibility, and accountability in the public interest.
