A doctoral research into the Teshie-Nungua seawater desalination plant in Ghana has found that building pipes was the easy part — keeping GWCL and its private partner financially accountable for decades is where the real risk lies. The plant was structured as a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) public-private partnership, where a private developer financed and operated the plant, then sold treated water to Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), the state utility.
The researcher conducted interviews with 14 institutional participants and held discussions with two focus groups to assess how the project was governed. The study describes itself as a case study of a particular period rather than a present-day audit of the plant. The research cited a historical purchase price of US$1.32 per cubic metre of treated water and a capacity charge of roughly US$1.4 million a month under the arrangements examined at the time.
The analysis found gaps in due diligence, financial appraisal, monitoring and coordination among the public bodies involved. Assessing a technically complex, unsolicited proposal proved difficult, particularly where the contracting authority lacked the specialist capacity to independently test the developer's assumptions before signing on. This raises concerns about the long-term sustainability of the project.
Central to the analysis is a distinction between a water project working "on paper" — meaning it is contractually and financially sound — and working "at the tap," meaning ordinary households actually receive safe, affordable, reliable water. The research found both sides of that equation mattered in Teshie-Nungua. On the positive side, some residents told researchers that access to water improved while the plant was operating, and a number linked this to better household sanitation.
However, other participants raised concerns about interruptions to supply, affordability, the state of distribution infrastructure, and the perceived salinity of the water reaching their homes. The research is careful to note that residents' accounts of taste or salinity are not, by themselves, proof that water failed quality standards — that would require verified testing and transparent publication of results.
Under a BOOT arrangement, GWCL as the public off-taker is bound to pay the private developer for treated water over the life of the contract, regardless of how much revenue GWCL itself manages to collect from households and businesses. That mismatch — fixed long-term payment obligations against uncertain domestic collections — is, according to the research, the financial fault line running beneath the entire project.
The findings land at a moment when Ghana's water supply system is visibly under strain. Ghana Water Ltd recently completed repair works on weak sections of the Kpong-Tema transmission pipelines, allowing production to resume at the Kpong Treatment Plant, while parts of Accra continue to experience water rationing. The research sets out four safeguards it says future water partnerships should adopt, including independent technical, financial and legal assessments before approving a project.
Key points
- The research highlights the need for rigorous scrutiny of PPP contracts to ensure that they are structured to serve residents affordably over the long term.
- The study recommends that public authorities should commission independent technical, financial and legal assessments before approving a project, especially one that arrives as an unsolicited proposal from a private developer.
- The findings also emphasize the importance of stress-testing affordability against difficult but plausible scenarios, including currency depreciation, rising energy costs and lower-than-expected bill collections.
