By Peter Burr. Prepared for the Monitoring sustainable WASH service delivery symposium, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 9-11 April 2013.

1. Linking financial monitoring with
decision making: Asset monitoring for
sustainable services in rural Ghana
Peter Burr/IRC International water and sanitation centre

2. Overview
• Context
• What is the problem
• Why asset monitoring is useful
• How can monitoring be taken forward in rural Ghana
• Challenges and next steps
Title, speaker
Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery Symposium

3. Assessing the scope for Asset Management in rural Ghana
Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery Symposium
Rural water supply in Ghana..
A success story...?
Yes
1990 coverage = 36%
2000 coverage = 58%
2010 coverage = 80% (UNICEF/JMP 2012)

4. *in reality the initial investment for older systems would have been
much more but in recent years unit costs have come down.
East Gonja DistrictAkatsi District
Rural point sources
What is the problem (1)
- In these two districts - approx US$4m in assets (at current prices)*
- Approx US$2.1m is being wasted
Source: Triple-S
(2012)

5. Assessing the scope for Asset Management in rural Ghana
Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery Symposium
Small town schemes – East Gonja District
- 5 piped schemes < 3 years = Functioning
- 2 piped schemes > 3 years = Completely broken down
awaiting donor rehabilitation (1), Partially functioning (1)
What is the problem (2)
72%
14%
14%
Fully functional Partially functional
Non-functional
• Inadequate maintenance
of assets + little budgeting
• Unsustainable services at
a high cost

6. Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery Symposium
CapEx
Donor
OpEx
Community
CapManEx
Direct support
Replacement
Community/D.A.
DA + CWSA
Ad Hoc: Donors
– sometimes DA
Community/D.A.Ad Hoc: Donors
Financing asset management in rural
Ghana (rural point sources)
Often financed
Occasionally financed
Rarely/Never financed
Project based: Donors
Actual US$20
Ideal - US$62
per year
US$20-50 per
year
Actual (without donor support) –
US$0.38 per person/per year
Ideal – US$0.58 per person/year

7. Monitoring assets to improve
management....
Assessing the scope for Asset Management in rural Ghana
Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery Symposium
Asset management is a decision
making process that seeks to
ensure “the right amount of work on
the right assets in the right time
period for the right price to the right
specification” (Emery, 2005).
Acquire Operate
MaintainReplace

8. Simple asset management planning
Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery Symposium
Create
• An asset register of
location, condition, age, performance, assesse
d value, useful remaining life, importance, service
delivered
Prioritise
• The rehabilitation/ replacement of assets
based on their condition and importance
Develop
• An annual budget including expected costs
of minor and major maintenance, accounting
for future replacement of assets.
Implement
• The asset management plan.
Review, update,
and revise

9. Adapting asset management?
Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery Symposium
Implementing this is data intensive and therefore
can be costly
Principle: only monitor when
Cost of
monitoring
Savings to management
and/or improvements to
service

10. Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery Symposium
• Links between preventive maintenance of BH and HPs
and service delivery? Fix on failure a valid approach?
Less burden on detailed asset planning, modelling and scheduling
for maintenance etc..
Role of asset monitoring
• Maintain register of asset functionally and importance – prioritise
repair/intervention, select sites for new construction – Impartial
decision making?
• Data on breakdown rates, costs of repair has reflected on issues of
revenue collection and affordability
• Better understanding of responsibilities and the linked costs
Adapting for point source
systems?

11. Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery Symposium
• Small towns higher CapEx investment : (WASHCost puts
it between US$ 50 – 130 per person in Ghana)
• More complex systems requiring more complex data -
knowing what you have, where it is, what it is likely to
need replacing
• Stakes are higher. No data at present!
• Improve prioritisation
Adapting for small towns?

12. Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery Symposium
Systematic decision making?
Source: EPA 2003
For example, Prioritise replacement...
But: How can we expect asset management when
management is weak??

13. Next steps...
• Explore different asset monitoring approaches
(scope, regularity, methods) recognising the cost of
collection VS usefulness to decision makers
• Look ways to embed in DiMES and report on the most
useful indicators for districts for priorities
• Detail key assets with small town systems
• Seek to planning and budgeting within districts to ensure
capacities for post project monitoring and auditing etc...
Monitoring Sustainable WASH Service Delivery Symposium