Technology and institutional arrangements in the delivery of public sanitation and solid waste services in Ghanaian cities

This paper discusses two services, namely sanitation and solid waste, which have become intractable to manage in Ghanaian cities (Accra, Kumasi and Tema). The paper provides insights into the various technologies adopted to provide the service and analyzes the institutional arrangements for their dissemination. Public sector delivery by the waste management department was found wanting, and new institutional arrangements involving public, private and community partnerships have been introduced. Based on a users' satisfaction survey, the paper explains why the quality of a service may differ across the types of institutional arrangement adopted to deliver it. It also shows that more insight can be gained from users' assessment of efficiency, reliability, adequacy, cleanliness etc. of a service than from the technical criteria used by public officers. The paper uses the survey results to draw conclusions on what needs to be done in switching from one institutional arrangement to another.