Hello everyone,
I am back in Kumasi with more stories of research and daily
life here in Ghana for you to indulge in.
I arrived in Kumasi on Sunday after a four-hour bus ride. If
you remember my original post about my last trek to Kumasi, the trip took
almost 2 hours longer, a positive indication that the roads are benefiting from
the on-going construction. When I arrived, I took a taxi to Kruofrum, where I
am staying with a host family I met when I was studying in Ghana last year.
Once I got some coffee in my system, I met with Mubarak for lunch. He was
visiting from Sunyani and was still in town by the time I made it into town. After
spending a few hours in good company, exhaustion from my trip began to set in,
so I headed home to relax for the rest of the night.
The following day, Monday, was jam-packed and very
productive. I went to campus to finally meet Dr. Donkoh, a professor of History
and Political Science on campus who is also supervising my research. It was
nice to finally meet her; our schedules had not matched up since I arrived in
October. She was gracious to call David, a former colleague of hers who is
working in the water sector, so that I could speak with him about his work.
David is working predominantly in the rural water sector, and though our
current research agendas aren’t exactly aligned, he was previously a professor
here at KNUST and did research on housing in informal settlements and poor
areas of Kumasi, which is very relevant for what I am doing. As I alluded to in
my last post, sometimes areas within the piped distribution network in the
urban sphere lack a connection because they do not own the title to the house
or land in question where they are proposing to establish a connection. (The
GWCL requires its customers to possess the title to the building in order for
them to be connected to piped network and receive GWCL services.) Anyhow, David
sent me some of his past published journal articles, which I will be reading
this week. Dr. Donkoh also contacted her colleague Dr. Brenya, to see if I
could use his office whenever I wanted to come to campus to do work. Dr. Brenya
agreed and I learned from Dr. Donkoh that, ironically enough, Dr. Brenya was,
until quite recently, a professor at West Virginia University before returning
to Ghana to teach at KNUST. When I met Dr. Brenya, he told me that his family
is still in Morgantown and he goes back often to visit them. It was exciting to
meet someone who could visualize my university and with whom I can relate to.
After meeting Dr. Brenya, I went to the International
Programs Office (IPO) to straighten out some fees I was apparently supposed to
pay. Essentially, when I came to Kumasi during my first two weeks in Ghana, I
met with Mercy, the coordinator of the IPO and she told me that typically with
Fulbright and other visiting scholars and professors, the office has them
register and pay tuition and fees to the university in return for the services
the university is providing them. When I asked her how much this would be, she
told me US$4,000, or more than 8,000 Ghana Cedis. In other words, the amount I
was to pay was the equivalent of the stipend I get for three months of living
here. I told her I couldn’t afford it and that I didn’t really see the benefits
of paying tuition and other fees associated with studying when I wouldn’t be
enrolling in courses here or living on campus. Mercy assured me this wasn’t a
problem; that she understood and that it was their fault because they should have
sent me the bill before I came to Ghana, which is what they usually do with
visiting scholars, so that I had time to prepare my finances accordingly. I
walked away from that conversation feeling assured that everything was
straightened out; then two days later I received an email from the office with
my bill. I replied to the email and heard nothing more- again, thinking that
meant everything was settled. Then, when I went to meet with Dr. Donkoh, she
brought up the situation and said Mercy had contacted her about it, and that I
should go and visit her to make sure everything was as it should be.
Apparently, after my most recent visit, everything really should be all set and
I won’t have to pay anything.
Feeling as though I had been running around the whole
morning, I sought a seat under the shade of one of the buildings on campus and
proceeded to write my last blog entry and make some phone calls about French
lessons and Twi lessons to begin in January and to set up meetings with PURC
and GWCL members for the week.
On Tuesday morning, I made my way to campus to meet with
Jorge. I initially met Jorge through Anna, who was here on a Fulbright last
year. I contacted Anna before coming to Ghana to talk with her about her
experience and get her advice on housing and campus life. Anna gave me her
advice and happily introduced me to Jorge and Mubarak through Facebook. Jorge
kindly offered to help me look for some housing while I was still Stateside and
just seemed like a really great person. When I first arrived in Kumasi, Jorge
was at a conference in Tanzania, then, when I was planning to move to Kumasi on
a more permanent basis and begin my research, I was called back to the States
for my Rhodes interview. With the craziness in both of our schedules, we hadn’t
had the chance to meet yet, so I was eager to finally get to meet him. It was
well worth the wait. Jorge is enthusiastic about life, very easy-going and his
energy is contagious. He is also one of the most inspirational people I have
met at this point in my life. I can’t recall a time when I’ve had an hour-long
conversation with someone I just met and had moments where all I wanted to do
was applaud or stand up and say, “Exactly!” It was like what I imagine
attending a church you actually really enjoy would be like.
Jorge was really interested in my research so we talked
about my objectives and what I have done since arriving in Ghana. That
conversation led into a discussion about his interests in water and sustainable
living. Jorge has a degree in electrical engineering and is currently working at
the energy center on campus. He is very keen on renewable energy and how to
deliver services so that people can live more sustainable lifestyles. He is
considering pursuing an MBA for his next degree, so I asked if he has
aspirations of establishing his own renewable energy company here in Ghana or in
another country. His response: “You know, I’ve never thought about living in
any other country; I think I was born here for a reason- a purpose. It’s
something I’ve thought about a lot since I was a child and I have vowed to use
my life as an example to my people.” (Do you see what I mean now about him
being inspirational?) Speaking with Jorge was very refreshing and it is really
nice to have people in my life that are passionate about what they do- whether that’s
renewable energy, fashion, music, teaching, etc.. I think that it’s important
to find what you love to do and do it. Life can be very complicated at times
and nothing is ever clear cut or black and white, but I do think that finding
what you are passionate about and pursuing it can be easy; you just have to be
willing to try new things and not be afraid to take risks. Along the lines of
this inspirational rant on not being afraid to take risk, I’d like to take this
opportunity as a segue to bring up this amazing blog post that talks exactly
about these topics, called, ‘The Decision Elf’ (https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/40cf0a8919cb).
I don’t want to give away too much because it is well worth taking the 15
minutes to read, but here is a brief synopsis of the post: The author begins
with an anecdote about how he is living in NYC with $150,000 in debt, renting
an apartment for $3,000 a month with exactly $3,000 in his bank account. He is
one month away from being penniless and a mere three months away from his
company’s funds running completely dry. He then leads into his story about how
he got to this point, which revolves around taking out loans to travel the
world and being faced with two of the biggest decisions of his life (which I
don’t want to give away because then you won’t have any incentive or impetus to
read the article for yourself). In making these decisions, he refers to the
process of being visited by a ‘decision elf’ (hence the title of the post).
Each time, the decision he ultimately makes is incredibly risky and full of
uncertainty, but at the end of his entry, the author states that it is always
the risk not taken that is more dangerous than the risk taken. I think all of
us need to be reminded at times that sometimes playing it safe and sticking
with a job that you are unhappy with or whatever the case may be is more
detrimental to you than taking a risk and going for what you really want. No
one succeeds every time in everything that they do. Failure is part of being a
human and is part of life and it’s a good thing because without failing and
having to fight for what you really want, would you really fully appreciate it
when you finally got it? Anyway, I digress and will continue on with the rest
of this post.
After meeting Jorge, I went to the internet café to do some
research. While there, this guy, who later introduced himself as Tolu, approached
me to ask if I was an American. I told him that I was and he said that he was
too; that he was from Oklahoma University and was studying abroad for the year
in Ghana. Tolu is actually Ghanaian by birth, but has lived most of his life
outside of Ghana. He lived for seven years in the UK before he and his family
moved to Texas, where they currently live. When I asked why he was studying in
Ghana he told me that he missed it and wanted to come back, so he decided to
study here for the year. It sounded, though, that Ghana was not at all as he
remembered from his childhood and he was dealing with quite a bit of culture
shock. He asked me questions like what I did to prevent myself from getting
bored here and if I wished Africa was better (which led into a whole discussion
about what exactly he meant by ‘better’ and how I don’t necessarily believe the
end goal of development in Ghana, or Africa as a whole for that matter, is to
be exactly like the US or Europe, but I won’t get into that here). When I asked
about what he does to keep himself occupied, he told me that every two weeks he
flies to Accra to go to the clubs and to drink. This made me laugh; here was
Tolu, whose motivation for coming to studying in Ghana for the year was
essentially to come back to his birthplace, to experience and rediscover his
‘home;’ yet, he was filling his experience with places and activities that
simulated his life back home. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against going
out for a night on the town- in fact, I think that having a good balance and
blowing off steam is important, and that it is also important, in order to feel
comfortable, that one incorporates important aspects of their life from back
home and who they are with their life abroad. That being said, I don’t think
that anyone should go to another country and do those things so much to the
extent that they are literally boxing themselves out of experiencing local
culture and customs. I don’t mean to sound critical of Tolu; everyone has their
own coping mechanisms for culture shock and adjusting. I also don’t mean to
make him out as an ignorant American. He is a very nice guy and I enjoyed our
conversation and his company. It was just so interesting to me to hear why he
came here in the first place and his impressions of Ghana. I am curious to see
how his adjustment goes over the rest of his time here.
Wednesday was filled with interviews. I just have to preface
these next few paragraphs by saying that it really never ceases to amaze me how
much I learn through an hour long discussion with someone working in the water
sector and how much these discussions reignite my passion for what I am doing.
I’ll also divert to tell an anecdote to explain the ‘coffee with a hint of
fish’ portion of the title of this blog post. Each morning when I wake up, the
first thing I do is go to the kitchen and boil water to make coffee. This
probably is no surprise to anyone. On Wednesday morning, I went to the kitchen
and grabbed a metal pot. I should also make it known here before I continue
that fish is a staple of the Ghanaian diet. I felt the inside of the pot and
could still feel residue from oil used to cook whatever was prepared the night
before. Not considering it was probably fish, I ignored this early warning and
proceeded to fill the pot with water and put it on fire to boil. Once the water
was hot, I went to my room to fix my coffee. Taking my first sip, something
tasted off, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. A quarter of the way
through my coffee I realized that the foreign taste was fish! I smelled the
water from the thermos I emptied the boiling water into and sure enough, it
smelled like fish; the water had picked up the taste from the residue left in
the pot from the night before. I can assure you that the smell or taste of
mackerel in the morning, particularly in coffee, is not a pleasant experience.
But hey, lesson learned: if a pot feels oily or is used to cook fish, don’t use
it to boil water. Anyway, back to the interviews.
My first one was with Stevens Ndebugri, the regional
distribution manager at the GWCL. Stevens explained to me that the greater
Kumasi area is divided into 12 districts: 8 city and 4 rural. These boundaries
are based not on population, but rather, are carved out based on the boundaries
of Adum, one of the most densely populated cities in Kumasi. It used to be that
district boundaries were based on population, which makes more sense because
that system is better suited for meeting the needs of citizens living in the
areas, but somewhere along the line, this changed. Each district is assigned a
category based on population and the number of household and commercial water connections
it has. These categories allow the GWCL to know how much water will need to be
provided in the area and are particularly helpful when measuring Key
Performance Indicators, such as bill collection and non-revenue water
identification. There are two treatment plants that serve the water needs of
the areas. The larger one, the Barakesi treatment plant, can produce 136,364m3
of water a day; while the smaller plant, at Obuasi can produce 13,636 m3/day.
As the distribution
manager, Stevens is in charge of facilitating the following tasks: repairing
leaks in the existing piped network, connecting new customers to the network
(including preparing estimates for how much it will cost for the new
connection), monitoring the flow rate of water in the city, managing water
pressure, and making sure that work is carried out in the most economical way
possible. When asked about some of the challenges he faces in his work, he
mentioned logistical problems due to budget constraints. He told me that there
are major problems will billing and revenue collection, as well as the
government granting the full amount of proposed annual budgets.
I then transitioned the conversation to the distribution
network. I asked Stevens if he knew where the piped networks began in the city
and where they ended, as a way of beginning to determine the geographical
location of some of the communities where tanker services are filling the
supply gap. I cannot possibly tell you how excited I got when Stevens’ response
to this question was, “Let’s take a trip to the GIS office; we have maps of the
distribution network.” I wasn’t just enthusiastic about this because one of my
majors was in Geography, but because 1) I wasn’t expecting the office to have a
thorough, detailed map of the distribution network, and 2) I definitely wasn’t
expecting, with all the talking I hear and reading I do on budget constraints
the company faces in its operations, for the GWCL to have a GIS office. The
maps I got are amazing and are going to be so helpful in determining
communities where I can carry out the fieldwork portion of my project. I then
asked Stevens the decision making process for the GWCL in deciding where to
establish new connections and expand the network into communities currently off
the grid. He told me that the company does a cost-benefit analysis. The GWCL
“wants to make money” (direct quote), so the ability of a consumer to pay is
taken into consideration. According to Stevens, the government subsidizes the
cost of water and consumers currently do not bear the full price burden of
water. In Stevens’ opinion, the government’s current external debt (debt
acquired through accepting loans and funds from external sources, namely
foreign actors) is too high and presents difficulties for GWCL operations
because, as mentioned earlier, the GWCL’s budget is approved and partially
funded by the government. When the government cannot manage and repay its
debts, it affects the money it has available to finance operations and
institutions such as the GWCL. When I asked Steven about the tanker trucks and
water vendors that are helping fill the supply gap in communities without piped
water, he directed me to Scipiou, the district manager of the GWCL East office.
Before heading to the East office, I made the trip to the
PURC, which was just up the street from Stevens’ office. I had arranged a
meeting with Mashoud, the Regional Manager of the PURC, earlier in the week. My
meeting with Mashoud was different than other interviews I have carried out to
date. He had just returned from a field visit, so once he arrived, he invited
me into his office. His first action was to offer me a seat, followed by
grabbing the remote and turning on the television in his office. Though he
muted the TV, I noticed his eyes wandering frequently to the screen throughout
our discussion. The most entertaining and unexpected, for me at least, portion
of the interview occurred when our conversation was interrupted by a phone call
about a sheep deal. Whenever I go to talk to an official of the GWCL or PURC,
there are frequent interruptions for phone calls, which I understand
completely; I mean these guys are professionals, graciously taking time out of
their work day to answer my questions, and have work to do, so they need to
take phone calls when they receive them. But a call about arranging a sheep for
slaughter at a funeral was a new one for me. I was pretty entertained. I
mention the TV and the sheep deal not to seem negative about Mashoud or
unappreciative of his time, because I’m not bothered by either of these things.
Rather, I share these descriptors to
paint a picture of my experience and to demonstrate some of the unplanned
occurrences that I feel make daily life for me here so vibrant, fulfilling, and
different than my life at home.
I told Mashoud about the nature of my research and that I
wanted to ask him about the PURC’s initiative to establish consumer services
associations, as well as mechanisms in place to handle complaints from those
serviced by tanker trucks not deriving their water from GWCL filling stations.
Mashoud told me that the PURC was a young organization (which depends on how
you look at it: the PURC was established in 1997; their complaints procedure in
2000; and the initiative that I am investigating- Consumer Services
Associations/Committees- in 2001/2002) and that it still has a long way to go
to successfully implementing its mandate in this area. When I asked him
specifically about Consumer Services Committees, he told me that they were
seemingly non-existent; one had been established in Obuasi in 2010, but was
facing a lot of challenges due to issues of funding: the five members who sit
on the board of the organization are paid a small allowance by the PURC.
According to Mashoud, the PURC is having a lot of problems with organizational
funding, which is affecting the functioning of the association in Obuasi and
the establishment of more in the region. Honestly, I was pretty dumbfounded by
this response. I mean I know that funding is a huge challenge faced by the
water sector in Ghana, but couldn’t forging productive relationships with local
development agencies, such as the District Assembly (DA), help to alleviate
this problem? When I posed this question to Mashoud, he said that the DA could
absolutely help by assuming the role of acting as watchdogs on behalf of
consumer interests, but people are not ready to make such sacrifices. When I
asked for clarification, he explained to me that in the past, in fact just
recently, the PURC held a workshop, which members of the DA attended. The
workshop had all of the perks of a typical conference: snacks, coffee, tea and
lunch were provided. Yet, at the end of the workshop, numerous District
Assemblymen approached him to be paid for attending. I believe their motive was
that attending the workshop should count as a work day since they were carrying
out their duty as a representative of the people by being there, but how could
the PURC possibly afford to pay everyone? And, the question beckons, should they?
Should representatives expect to be paid for workshops that are going to help
develop their professional capacity to better serve their constituents and
improve water services to their communities? When I asked Mashoud about the
PURC’s relationship with tanker associations in the area, he told me that their
engagement with these providers has declined since 2008 due to different
priorities. At the end of the interview, Mashoud brought up Obama and asked if
I had seen the speech he gave at Mandela’s funeral; I told him I had not (I am
sure that is going to make Paul Hoffman cringe when he reads this considering
our excursion together to South Africa; admittedly, I have not been as much of
a news junkie as usual). Mashoud then mentioned his surprise at the audience’s
reaction, or lack thereof, to what he considered a very motivational and
eloquent speech by Obama. This sent us into a discussion about politics in
America and the use of power by leaders around the world. Mashoud told me he
couldn’t understand why there are people with the means to create change and
have a positive impact on the world, but instead choose to spend their money on
having five houses in three different countries, fancy cars and things to
demonstrate their economic status. He then looked at me and said, “I mean look
at you. Here you are with little means, but are still using your passion to try
to cause a positive change in your own way.” He brought up the example of
Mandela and how he used his life to create a major change in the world and
questioned why more ‘big men’ didn’t follow his example. It was yet another
inspirational end to a conversation.
After meeting with Mashoud, I made my way to the GWCL East
office to meet with Scipiou and talk with him about tanker trucks and different
associations that fill at GWCL stations and operate in the area. He told me
that tankers are privately owned and operated and that some opt to join
associations. Luckily, there were some guys who drove some of the trucks at the
office, so I got to talk to them about some of the areas where they deliver
water. Knowing that there is no better way to learn than by doing, I then asked
if I could join them on their route to deliver water the following day and
received the answer, “Of course you can! You just come tomorrow morning.”
So that’s what I did. The following morning I went back to
the East office and joined Kwabena and Iman, who operate their own tanker
service, on their route for the day. Iman, the owner of the truck, has been in
the business for about 6 years now. Our first stop was to go to the university
to fill three water tanks on the engineering campus. When I was talking to one
of the guys there who works as a member of the cleaning service, he told me
that apparently water hasn’t flowed to that part of campus for the past week
and the borehole is broken. He was less than impressed by GWCL services and
didn’t have very positive things to say about the company.
On the way to campus, I asked Iman how he determines the
price that he charges consumers for water. Because they drive literally all
over the area and have to go back to the filling station to refill multiple
times a day, fuel is a heavy driver of price. On average, Iman told me that he
charges GHC 90 (approx.. $45) for 1,000 gallons of water; GHC 120 ($60) for
1,500 gallons of water; and GHC 140 for 2,000 gallons of water. However, I
learned through the course of the day, that fuel is just one part of the
equation when determining price. Iman also considers how easy the job is and
sometimes he will just base the price off of how he feels it should be (what
that exactly means, I don’t really know). Iman also told me that he pays the
GWCL GHC 8 per 1,000 gallons of water to fill at their station. In other words,
each time Iman fills the truck, he pays GHC 24 ($12) to fill his 3,000-gallon
tank completely.
When we arrived on campus, Kwabena parked the truck and both
men went through the process of unrolling the hoses, which they then connected
to a tube that would pump water from the tank, through the hose and into the
polytank. I didn’t know before watching the process that the tanks are equipped
with a motor that mechanizes the pumping process. This makes sense though
because a lot of the tanks that they are filling are either on rooftaps or
elevation stands to create the pressure needed to flow through pipes. I noticed
that there is a pretty good amount of water lost through the process of transferring
water from the tank to the final destination. The connection between the hoses
wasn’t a perfect fit, so a lot of water was lost that way. Also, there would be
times when Kwabena would say the polytank was full, but Iman wouldn’t be able
to close the tap fast enough, and the tank would overflow. Another issue I noticed
was that in terms of preserving quality of the water, the polytanks of the
consumer that are being filled don’t always look as though they’ve been
cleaned. For instance, when we were on campus, I climbed to the roof with
Kwabena to watch as he filled the polytanks there and when I looked in the
tank, I saw some debris floating around. I should have asked when the last time
they cleaned the tank was, but I didn’t and it looked as though it could stand
to be washed out.
After filling the tanks at KNUST and collecting the payment,
we went back to the filling station before heading to our next two stops:
Kyere-Truba and Antoa. Both of these communities are much more off the beaten
path and harder to get to than KNUST and neither has piped water connections. The
roads going to Truba and Antoa are unpaved, dirt roads and the ride was quite
bumpy. There were also a few inclines and declines and I thought on more than one
occasion that the truck was going to tip over when we were driving through
them.
Truba is a newly established residential area. In fact, we
delivered water to a construction site. The homes built and being built in the
area are really big and I think it safe to assume that the area was being built
up to cater to more middle to upper class Ghanaians. In Antoa, we delivered
water to a polytank of a home and a construction site within a schoolyard. Truba
and Antoa are located in dense, lush forest and it was a beautiful, albeit
bumpy, ride.
As you can see, things are going really well here and I am
making great progress with my research. I will be in Kumasi until Sunday, then
will travel to Accra for some meetings and to finalize travel plans for Brent
and I. Just one more week until he comes; I would disclose what I have planned
for us, but it’s supposed to be a surprise, so you’ll have to read the next
post to hear all about our adventures!
Until next time,
Chelsea
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