A research conducted by Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) and Transparency and Integrity in Service Delivery in Africa (TISDA) in the water sector of the country, dubbed “Ghana’s National Water Supply Integrity”, a well documented 87 page report, has revealed an alarming disparity in the payment of water rates for both rural and urban centres in the country. Making a presentation, coordinator of the Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC), George Amu, said when it comes to affordability, cost recovery, cost sharing rural water users pay more tariffs than their urban counterparts. Mr. George Amu made the startling revelation at a workshop organized for stakeholders in the water sector in Wa by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) in partnership with local partners, Pronet-North. The GII is a body with the responsibility of checking corruption in Ghana. The Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre Coordinator cited an instance to back his claim: ‘’Whereas the average water user in the urban center pays Ghc0.66 as lifeline tariff his counterpart in the rural area who uses water for domestic purposes is paying Ghc1.65, a variation which according GII director is quite alarming and unacceptable’’. He added that when it comes to urban water supplies, tariffs paid by users are used in cost recovery in meeting operations and maintenance cost which will in the long run help in repayment of investment cost. In terms of rural water supplies, tariffs paid by users are used to meet operations and management cost, major repairs, replacement and extension to new areas. Mr.amu said in the rural areas, 90 per cent of construction cost is subsidized with five per cent contribution by communities and MMDAs towards capital cost of water supply systems. He said estimate for family expenditure on rural and small town system ranges between USD 0.94 and USD 2.76 and 90 per cent of households pay for water through ‘pay as you fetch’ or through monthly fees. He said in the urban centres tariffs are structured according progressive pricing policy, making room for cross-subsidies from large users of water such as commercial tariffs. Mr. George Amu said in the water sector alone an amount of USD 1.49 billion would be required for the expansion of water to meet demands up to 2020 and an amount of 811 million dollars would also be required to meet the MDG on water by 2015. He hinted that a total amount of USD 505 million is needed to finance rural water to achieve MDG. He said the research also showed that there are gender issues in the water sector. He decried the increasing decline in the participation of women in the water sector, saying, three out of seven people in a committee could be women but their voices are hardly heard. In most cases too, users of water do not participate in decision making and meetings are not held with users. The research also raised the issue of petty corruption with water sector governance. He said issues of illegal connection, meter tampering, illegal payment of meter readers, under reporting of daily sales by vendors and illegal charges and over-invoicing of materials for new connections are some of the petty corruption bedevilling the water sector. There is also what Mr. Amu described as ‘grand corruption’ in the water sector. For example he said, one contractor can buy and price all bidding documents. Again one contractor can be awarded a number of contracts under different names. There is also the problem of procuring entities making payment before due dates, as over-invoicing, poor contract management, poor training and working conditions of construction worker coupled with shoddy work through the use of poor quality materials among other related problems in the water sector of the country.