Supply constraints of utility services to newly developing private estates in Accra

The low housing stock in Africa makes the establishment of new housing estates by real estate developers an important contribution to solving the acute housing problems confronting the continent. Infrastructure supply for housing is however one of the major development problems confronted. Though a number of real estate developers have established firms and commenced the construction of housing units for the use of urban dwellers, they are confronted with the problem of providing essential utility services to the housing units being constructed. The supply of appropriate infrastructure to these newly emerging private housing estates that are mostly located on the urban periphery is therefore of concern to the various parties comprising potential buyers, residents, developers, utility service providers and governments. The ramifications of the elements of “private, peripheral location and sheer size” raise questions concerning availability and quality of public utility services such as potable water, electricity and telephone systems and how these issues are overcome. Against this background, the study sought to examine the policies, existing institutional arrangements and constraints associated with the delivery of utility services to newly developing estates in Ghana and to develop recommendations aimed at addressing the identified bottlenecks. A review of related literature on broad issues such as urbanization, land tenure, periurban development, housing and utility service; and particularly of utility provision, estate housing and related policies in Ghana was undertaken together with a case study approach in which four study areas comprising private estate developments spread across the periurban regions of Accra were selected. The consequences of urbanization and the polarization effect of Accra on demography and housing were depicted, which showed that the growth pattern and development in periurban regions of Accra are such that many rural settlements are gradually absorbed by the growth of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA). By analyzing the various roles played by utility service providers and estate developers in supplying water and electricity to the subject study areas, and by investigating their collaboration with institutions involved in land supply, the study identified as a key problem, the lack of coordination amongst and between the various stakeholders in land use and engineering planning for utility services in periurban regions of Accra; resulting in developers and not the service providers essentially driving supply of utilities to these areas at great expense and consequent ramifications on housing delivery. The key problem for the electricity service provider, Electricity Company of Ghana Limited, stems from design associated with the tendency of newly developing estates to result in unplanned incorporation of extra loads on its network and ad hoc load fluctuations on peripheral substations whilst the key problem for water supply to newly developing estates in Accra stems from the Ghana Water Company Limited capacity constraint. The study also revealed geographical variations in utility service quality and indicated that despite the water supply capacity constraint, its service quality in the study areas was better than that of electricity. The study therefore recommends short-term and long-term measures to respectively address current problems and future land development, housing and associated supply of utilities. The short-term proposals include amongst others the need for regular flow of information amongst the various stakeholders so that they move in tandem and establishment of a revolving fund to assist developers extend utility supply infrastructure to their estates. The policy recommendations give some directions for planning, financing, public and/or private provision of service infrastructure and service operations. They lend credence to public sector activities in a “support approach” for housing involving securing access to appropriately located land; accessing affordable and amenable sources of finances; providing basic services and means for maintaining and upgrading them over time; maintaining unobtrusive legislation; providing technical and managerial information, advisory services, training and the need for continued research amongst others. The study particularly recommends promulgation and enforcement of legislation (including provision and use of high-rise housing) requiring estate development of periurban Accra to be directionally zoned periodically. The Ministry of Works and Housing is also admonished to create a Department of Private Estate Development under which the Ghana Real Estate Developers’ Association (GREDA) could be promoted as a public-private partnership and made to collaborate with the Ministry of Private Sector Development and Presidential Special Initiatives and the Ministry of Tourism and Modernisation of the Capital City.

Source: KNUST