Stakeholders call on water enterprises to create synergies in a bid to maximize benefits

Ghana is racing behind time to meet sustainable development goal six which borders on clean water and sanitation.

Efforts have been thwarted by the devastating impact of illegal mining also referred to as “galamsey” posing threat to sources of drinking water to the millions of Ghanaians.

This, the sector minister is confident with the commissioning of 400 water guards, some sanity will prevail.

Speaking at the 2025 Beyond the pipe forum, Deputy Minister for works, housing and water resources, Gizella Tetteh-Agbotui, who read a speech on behalf of the sector minister implored institutions not to work in silos but create synergies to maximize benefits.

“The synergies is such an important issue. If the various organizations that are supplying water or are in the field of water don’t talk to each other, their investments are going to overlap and so it is very important that in every locality or region for example, safe enterprises know that they are working in this section; community water covers this section and Ghana water covers here, she emphasized.

She further commended Safe Water Network for continuing to lead on sustainable water models through its social enterprise approach.

“Your stations, serving over 150 communities, are delivering results where they are needed most—in peri-urban and underserved rural areas. We are particularly encouraged by your emphasis on financial sustainability, local capacity development, and innovative delivery mechanisms such as solar-power, water ATMs, and direct piped connections fitted with prepaid meters that allow for mobile money payments.

“We also appreciate the platform you’ve built through the Safe Water Enterprises (SWE) Alliance. This collective effort fosters collaboration, amplifies field learnings, and helps us address long-standing issues such as service area delineation, asset ownership, and the role of regulation in rural and small-town water delivery,” she added.

Over the past year alone, Safe Water Network has expanded its operational footprint to reach an additional 55,000 people in 10communities across Ghana.

Cumulatively, it has also reached 504,000 people in 158 communities. Together with its fellow implementers in the Safe Water Enterprise Alliance, it is now reaching more than 2 million Ghanaians with safe, affordable water.

“This is a tremendous achievement—but it’s not the finish line. It is fuel for our continued commitment to innovation, implementation, learning for improvement, knowledge sharing, and most importantly, scale. At Safe Water Network, we believe that practice should inform policy—and the Beyond the Pipe Forum has always been the bedrock of our implementation work.

“The insights, dialogues, and ideas shared here every year shape the way we approach service delivery in the field, inform how we adapt our enterprise model, and guide our partnerships with government and non-state actors, country director for Safe Water Network, Charles Nimako emphasized.

The forum also offered the platform to contribute perspectives and experiences.

In the coming months, the network aspires to build on the progress chalked-strengthening the technical and financial resilience of our model, equipping local operators and field support team, and aligning with government priorities as articulated in the President’s State of the Nation Address and the 2025 Budget that was delivered in Parliament.

The forum was under the theme, “Innovating for Sustainable Safe Water Access.”

The post Stakeholders call on water enterprises to create synergies in a bid to maximize benefits first appeared on 3News.

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