Assessing the Effects COVID-19 on Access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in USAID High Priority and Strategy-Aligned Countries - Focus on Small Piped Providers in Ghana

Between June and October 2020, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Partnerships and Learning for Sustainability (WASHPaLS) project conducted a rapid assessment and forecasting analysis of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services and products in USAID high priority and strategy-aligned countries.

“Deep dive” analyses were carried out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal, Rwanda, and Senegal. One of central findings of the work in Ghana was that the government’s extended free water directive appeared to be combining with the pandemic’s income shock to threaten the ability of smaller water service providers to continue operating at acceptable performance standards. In response to this finding, USAID tasked WASHPaLS with conducting a follow-on analysis in Ghana to gain further insights into the challenges faced by small water providers and the ramifications on their customers.