SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 60. In the area of pricing, a “lifeline tariff ” has been set to subsidise poor households whose consumption falls below a threshold of 50 units per month. The CSAR claims that households living in multiple dwellings seem not to benefit from these subsidies as intended. Moreover, some consumers have complained about inaccurate charges, which seem to result mainly from the inability to provide all consumers with meters. Water 61. Access to water is a major problem in Ghana. Access to pipe-borne water is estimated at about 71.2% and 16.1% for the urban and rural populations respectively. The Ghana Water Company Limited, which supplies the urban areas, is currently unable to invest in expansion of the system. The Community Water and Sanitation Agency, which is responsible for supplying the rural areas, has enabled that fraction of the population with access to safe drinking water to expand from 41 to 46.4% between 2000 and 2003, by providing boreholes and hand-dug wells. Due to the increase in the incidence of guinea worm infections between 1998 and 2003, the government is providing funds to assist rural communities in the installation of water and sanitation facilities. Financial services 62. Access to financial services has eluded many small businesses. The main source of rural finance, the rural banking system, currently comprises 117 banks, yet it holds less than 5% of the deposits of the banking system as a whole. These rural banks have been important sources of credit for small farmers and industries, and rural women have been the objects of special credit schemes. Rural banks have also helped with community development projects, such as electricity poles, boreholes, markets and scholarship schemes for the needy. 63. Apart from these banks, other sources of rural credit include susu organisations, credit unions, savings, loans and NGOs. Recently, under the enhanced HIPC initiative, funds have been allocated to poverty-related activities, including the microfinance programmes for women to be used in agricultural production and marketing activities. The District Assemblies manage these funds. The CSAR indicates that inadequate capacity for management and a perception of political interference in the disbursement of funds are among the issues citizens consider important. 131