Collaborative funding of rural water supply

Since 1979 when World Vision Ghana (WVG) started Rural Development work in Ghana, the cost of providing reliable source of potable water in the communities was becoming increasing more and more expensive to fund. Meanwhile water is the most essential single commodity for sustainable rural development in Ghana. In order to fully address the need, WVG commissioned the Ghana Rural Water Project (GRWP) in 1984 as a largescale water supply effort because of the huge budget required. In the first phase of the drilling programme, from 1984 – 1990, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provided funds for the drilling of 455 wet wells fitted with handpumps in nine out of the ten regions of Ghana. In the second phase that covered 1990 to 1995, 529 wet wells fitted with handpumps were provided with funding from the Conrad N. Hilton fund as the major donor. The concept of collaborative funding during this period and World Vision Unites States (WVUS) provided a matching grant to support the community Health Education and Sanitation component of the programme.