Addressing Open Defecation Sanitation Problem: The case of Dry Toilet Implementation in the WA Municipality, Ghana

Thesis Overview

<p><b>1.0 INTRODUCTION&nbsp;</b></p><p><b> 1.1 BACKGROUND STUDY</b></p><p>The challenge of achieving global sanitation targets is that it requires application of both technology that is appropriate and a supporting organizational structure. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), sanitation generally refers to the provision of facilities and services for proper disposal of human waste (urine and faeces). Open defecation on the other hand is the practice of removing waste from the body through the anus; outside in and around one’s local community or public as a result of no access to toilets, latrines or any kind of improved sanitation. The United Nations Conference on Water (UNCW, 1977), declared the decade of (1981-1990) as International Drinking Water and Sanitation Decade with a target of water and sanitation for all (Black &amp; Fawcett, 2008). Despite the aim to improve both water supply and sanitation, most of the attention was put on water supply and at the end of this decade there were 300 million more people without sanitation than at its beginning (Black &amp; Fawcett, 2008). Globally, there are approximately 2.6 to 3 billion people without proper sanitation. The worst situation is in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where the demand for sanitation is rising due to the growing population especially in the urban areas (WHO/UNICEF, 2012).&nbsp;</p><p>Recently updated report; Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF, 2012) shows that there are 2.5 billion people in the world without access to improved sanitation. 1.1 billion People are practising open defecation and the rest are using shared or unimproved sanitation facilities. If such trends continue, the world will miss the sanitation target by 600 million people (United Nations, 2007). There is an increasing need for improved sanitation systems in many areas in the world, particularly in West Africa. West Africa specifically is struggling to meet the demands for sanitation.&nbsp;</p><p>This region has witnessed relative stagnation in sanitation coverage since 1990, when total access to basic sanitation was 32% (WHO &amp; UNICEF, 2006a). Improvements in sanitation coverage have been targeted by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) because of their strong links to issues of environmental and public health, economy, and human dignity. An estimated 1.6 billion people must be able to access improved sanitation services before 2015 in order to meet the MDGs target of halving the percentage of people without access to improved sanitation (United Nations, 2007). However, many countries in the world are not on track to meet these goals due to compounded problems of population growth, urbanization, and historically inefficient service provision. The inability of sanitation efforts to keep pace with population growth has resulted in an increase of over 110 million people in West Africa without access to sanitation. Over half of the Ghanaian population is sharing their sanitation facilities and only 14% is using improved facilities and 27% still practises open defecation (WHO/UNICEF 2012). Since 1995 8% of the population has gained access to improved sanitation and with current pace the MDG sanitation target will not be reached by 2015 (WHO/UNICEF 2012). The MDG report by National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) of the Government of Ghana and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) states that with the current trend of sanitation development, the proportion of the population with access to improved sanitation will reach 21.2% by 2015 instead of the target of 52%, which indicates that there must be approximately five times increase in coverage to be able to achieve the set target (NDPC/UNDP 2010). Although Ghana ranks 152 out of 182 on the Human Development Index, it has the 4th lowest rate of sanitation coverage worldwide (UNICEF/WHO 2010). <br></p><p> <b>1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM&nbsp;</b></p><p>A survey conducted in public schools across Ghana by WASH revealed that about 10,000 schools do not have toilet facilities. The number is half the estimated 20,000 public schools in Ghana, apart from the thousands of privately owned schools that may not have toilet facilities (WASH, 2014). The survey is evident in Wa municipality, for instance the Wa Senior High Technical School have only one eight-sitter toilet and one-urine pit serve both sexes in the school which has a population of 2,200 students. Ironically, though the school is located directly opposite the Regional offices of both the Ghana Water Company Limited and the Community Water and Sanitation Agency, water supply to the school is erratic. Apart from that, the entire municipality have only 12 public toilet facility (KVIP) and just one (1) Water Closet against a population of 127, 284 (TTFPP, 2013). The pressure involved in accessing these limited facilities has forced many residents to end up defecating openly and indiscriminately. The cost involved in accessing the facility has also forced many vulnerable women and children to end up defecating around their houses and sometime in the bush because they cannot afford a cost of 50 pesewa in accessing the facility. Most often, children become victims of snake bite and scorpion sting while defecating in the bush (TTFPP, 2013). Hence, the crux of this study is to address the environmental sanitation problem leading to open defecation through a holistic approach of integrating an alternative sanitation technology that is compatible with local setting for community development and proper sanitation. Therefore, dry toilet implementation in the Wa municipality, Ghana. <br></p><p> 1.3 LOCATION&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;The Wa Municipality is one of the eleven administrative areas (District Assemblies) that make up the Upper West Region (UWR) of Ghana. It shares administrative boundaries with the Nadowli District Assembly to the North, the Wa East District Assembly to the East and South and the Wa West District Assembly to the West and South. It lies within latitudes 1º40‟N to 2º45‟N and longitudes 9º32‟ to 10º20‟W. It has a total land mass of 234.74 sq km. (Modern Ghana 2010). <br></p><p> <b>1.3.1 POPULATION&nbsp;</b></p><p>Total estimated population is127, 284 (GSS-Wa, 2009).It is the highest populated local administrative area with the largest affluent population in the region. By implication business will have a very large market because of the high and wide variety of demand for goods and&nbsp; services. The growing population therefore beacon for investment opportunities. Market and labour is therefore available for production in all sectors.&nbsp;</p><p><b>1.3.2&nbsp; CLIMATE/WEATHER</b></p><p>The municipality falls within the Guinea Savannah climatic zone, hence experiences the greatest climatic influence of one seasonal rainfall followed by a severe dry spell. The rainy season starts from April/May to September/October giving way to the dry season which sets in from November to March when relative humidity is at its lowest and the vegetation dried up under the influence of the Hamattan winds characterized by ravaging bushfires.&nbsp;</p><p><b>1.3.3&nbsp; ENVIRONMENT AND SANITATION&nbsp;</b></p><p>The Municipal Assembly lacks the capacity and financial resources to ensure maximum environmental sanitation standards. Skills, technologies and funds from the private sector are required for the development of waste management systems, particularly in providing final disposal site services, composting, recycling and treatment of waste, Biogas production.in the absent of these facilities has affected the sanitation state in area. The sanitation situation in the project area is certainly nothing to write home about. Nearly 80% of the populations do not have access to a toilet (Wa Municipality composite budget 2013). Many households for instance, do not have any kind of toilet facilities or they may be in bad condition. Open defecation is increasingly becoming alarming in some sections of the Municipality putting residents at the risk of sanitation related diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea and typhoid among others. The few available public toilets are constantly abused by some users and to those who cannot withstand the sight of the filthy looking facilities resort to open defecation. Children below ten years are often seen defecating around the premises of these public toilet facilities and waste containers freely without any reprimand thereby giving a very bad smell to residents within that vicinity.&nbsp;</p><p>The Municipality which is fast developing into a Metropolis must resort to the use of household toilet facilities, but this had constantly been overlooked by landlords because of the increasing demand for accommodation by students of the tertiary level. The municipality as at 2008 had about 8,505 residential buildings. With this number of residential buildings, the municipality can currently boast of only one Water Closet (WC), 12 KVIP's, 31 septic latrines and one Ventilated&nbsp; Improved Pit (VIP) as its public places of convenience. Private and institutional toilet facilities include 1,511 WCs, 36 KVIP's, 227 VIP's, 35 pan latrines and six pit latrines without any single private septic tank latrine in the municipality. In a bid to help solve the problem of open defecation, some private individuals constructs places of convenience and tend to collect user fees of 50 Ghana pesewas and this is believed to contribute to the problem of open defecation because users complain of the fee being too much for them to afford. </p>