Water Privatisation and Gendered Poverty

ABSTRACT

The economic decadence that marked the last quarter of the 20^th century saw rise of neoliberalism and the introduction of privatisation as a solution to the inefficient provision of utility services; water privatisation gained momentum in the 90s. Though private sector participation in the water sector in Ghana did not begin until 2005, the country since the 80s has seen various reforms which have served as preparatory grounds for the successful implementation of privatisation. This paper concludes that although water accessibility in Ghana has increased tremendously, it is not as a result of improvement in the services of the GWCL and the AVRL but rather, the increasing use of boreholes as an alternative resort to the poor quality of services. Given the current circumstances, water privatisation in Ghana is not likely to improve water accessibility; the consequence of this is that more women compared to men are likely to be income poor because of long hours of time spent in search of water.

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