Sanitation In Ghana Research Articles

Demographic disparities in unimproved drinking water and sanitation in Ghana: a nationally representative cross-sectional study

ObjectiveThe government of Ghana has targeted universal access to safe drinking water by 2025 and elimination of open defecation by year 2030. This study explored the use of unimproved drinking...

PLASTIC WASTE AND ITS ARTISTIC CONTEXT

The prevalence use and handling of plastics have become a global menace to the environment. This menace has even led to a national discourse on banning plastics in Ghana. The plastic waste situation seems to be an oblivious less concerned by some Ghanaian sculptors, engineers and scientists on its artistic exploration and contribution to the quota of environmental sanitation in Ghana. However, having identified the artistic qualities of plastics, this article seeks to transform plastic waste into art by exploring and analysing non-biodegradable polyethylene as a viable and unconventional material for sculpture. The focus of this studio-based research employed the Praxis with arts-based recycling approach as technique and procedures to create a bust from plastic waste as a means of establishing its viability as an unconventional material for sculpture. It was established from the outcome of the research that plastics as non-biodegradable material should not be seen as an environmental menace, but a viable and unconventional material for sculptors and other professionals like engineers and scientists beyond Ghana must also expand on this research further.

Socioeconomic and demographic factors affecting urban household access to improved water and sanitation in Ghana

Socioeconomic and demographic factors affecting urban household access to improved water and sanitation in Ghana

An assessment of the health sustainability of sanitation in Ghana: A quantitative analysis

The present study aims to assess the improvements of sanitation system of Kumasi metropolitan area. Sanitation conditions in Africa remain awful with approximately 20% of the population reported to still engage in open defecation in Sub‐Saharan Africa, despite major improvements in other climes of the world. In Ghana, the impacts of poor sanitation systems range from negatively impacting natural resources water quality, to causing health threats to the populations involved. Using health as selected sustainable sanitation, this research assesses reported cases of diseases and deaths associated with unsatisfactory sanitation from 2008 to 2015. Both primary and secondary data were employed. The primary data was collected through interview with key informants by purposive sampling. Quantitative data were analyzed via primary descriptive statistical methods. Results indicate slight improvements in the sanitation system. Our findings suggest that the number of diseases is high due to poor sanitation. However, statistics of deaths are minimal, and these were ascribed to improvements in health care in Ghana. The study has offered recommendations in order to improve sanitation system within the metropolis toward more sustainability. The research is significant because theory developers, researchers, policy makers, and practitioners can make use of its findings to tackle the problems of sustainable sanitation since theories and practices of sustainable sanitation are constantly evolving.

Effectiveness of National Sanitation Day as a community-participatory approach for improving environmental sanitation in Edina Traditional Area, Ghana

PurposePoor environmental sanitation affects environmental quality and health. Ghana is a developing country whose sanitation profile has been one of the lowest in the world in recent years. This has prompted various views regarding effective approaches for improving sanitation in Ghana for better environmental quality and health. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of National Sanitation Day (NSD) as a model for improving environmental sanitation in the Edina Traditional Area (ETA), Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThe study used key informant interviews and focus group discussions to collect qualitative data from purposively selected participants from predominantly fishing and farming communities in the ETA, Ghana. Data were analysed thematically and presented using interpretive narratives and most significant stories.FindingsResults showed a high level of community awareness of the model but low participation in the intervention, culminating in the model’s ineffectiveness to make any meaningful impact on improved sanitation in the study area. Key factors responsible for the model’s ineffectiveness include apathy, inadequate logistics, politics and attitude.Practical implicationsGovernment should engage more effectively with the municipal assembly, private sanitation companies and community level authorities to address the political, logistical, attitudinal and institutional challenges associated with the model to ensure effective participation in the NSD for better sanitation outcomes, leading to improved environmental quality and health for sustainable development.Originality/valueThis is one of the few studies that have evaluated the effectiveness of the NSD in Ghana since the model was introduced in the country in 2014. The outcome of the study could inform sanitation management policy, practice and research in Ghana as well as other developing countries that may adopt or adapt Ghana’s model.

English

Poor sanitation, water and hygiene are related to several and severe negative implications on health and the environment. In recent years, community-based management of water and sanitation facilities have been linked to improving access to these facilities. Ghana is also on its way to achieving the Strategic Development Goals (SDGs) for access to potable water. However, several studies have found gaps between increased access to water and sanitation in Ghana and have shown that more than a third of the water supply facilities breakdown within the first year of their inauguration. Despite these problems, Water and Sanitation Management Teams (WSMTs) have contributed immensely to the attainment of the SDGs. This study assessed the roles of fifteen communities in maintaining the momentum towards the SDGs. The study revealed that twelve communities (80%) out of fifteen have WSMTs in place. All the communities have water facilities but only four (27%) have access to toilet facilities and the WSMTs working effectively to provide good services to their community members. The existence and effectiveness of WSMTs aided in providing reliable water supply, periodic maintenance of Water Supply Systems (WSSs), less breakdown of WSSs, timely releasing of funds, effective monitoring and quick responses in repairing broken down facilities. However, these WSMTs faced challenges such as the inability to generate funds for the rehabilitation of WSSs, team members lacked skills in water and sanitation management, poor record-keeping and cooperation among the committee and community members in the delivery of their services. It is recommended that WSMTs should be given managerial and maintenance training on WASH projects before they are handed over to them, and community members should be encouraged to cooperate with the WSMTs. Key words: Community-based, water, sanitation, management, teams, sustainable, development.

The role of social identification for achieving an open-defecation free environment: A cluster-randomized, controlled trial of Community-Led Total Sanitation in Ghana

Unsafe sanitation practices are a major source of environmental pollution and are a leading cause of death in countries of the Global South. One of the most successful campaigns to eradicate open defecation is “Community-Led Total Sanitation” (CLTS). It aims at shifting social norms towards safe sanitation practices. However, the effectiveness of CLTS is heterogeneous. Based on social identity theory, we expect CLTS to be most effective in communities with stronger social identification, because in these communities individuals should rather follow social norms. We conducted a cluster-randomized controlled trial with 3,216 households in 132 communities in Ghana, comparing CLTS to a control arm. Self-reported open defecation rates and social identification were assessed pre-post. Generalized Estimating Equations showed that CLTS achieved lower open defecation rates compared to controls. This effect was significantly stronger for communities with stronger average social identification. The results confirm the assumptions of social identity theory. They imply that pre-existing social identification needs to be considered for planning CLTS, and strengthened beforehand if needed.

Religion and Sanitation in a City in Ghana: A Conundrum?

The current state of sanitation in Ghana is not a sudden development. The issue of poor sanitation stems from the poor management of waste in communities principally because of the attitude of the people towards it. The issue of religion comes to light in considering the factors that play a role in dealing with sanitation because of the confidence people have in religion. It is necessary to explore this possibility in dealing with the issue of poor sanitation in the society. This study therefore seeks to uncover the relationship between sanitation and religion in Ghana from the second half of the twentieth century to contemporary times.

Innovation prizes: incentivizing innovative solutions to water and sanitation challenges through prizes

This article presents the emerging learning from the action research Ideas to Impact programme, which is testing innovation prizes as a mechanism for incentivizing solutions and addressing long-standing challenges in the development sector. Innovation prizes have long been used to reward and incentivize innovation in the private sector, but are relatively new in their application to long-standing developmental problems. We explore the wider context of innovation prizes and their applicability within a development context. It is too early in the programme implementation to state conclusively that innovation prizes are an effective tool to solve development challenges, but here we offer our early lessons and practical experience from designing and implementing one of our water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) innovation prizes. This article highlights the early learnings from the Sanitation Challenge for Ghana, which incentivizes local government to rapidly improve and deliver urban sanitation in Ghana.

Urban water stress and poor sanitation in Ghana: perception and experiences of residents in the Ashaiman Municipality

Access to safe and adequate water and to sanitation has been a global developmental priority due to their intrinsic impacts on the achievement of the sustainable development goals. Despite the implementation of several measures to improve access to safe water and sanitation, urban dwellers in Ghana struggle to acquire water and access sanitation facilities. This paper identified and examined the vulnerable conditions of households to environmental inadequacies of potable water and sanitation and measures aimed at reducing the risks associated with them in the Ashaiman Municipality. The study revealed that, access to adequate water supply was not necessarily dependent on the physical location of house units, but on factors such as lack of building permit, financial constraints, rental conditions, administrative procedures and ill-suited housing arrangement. Inadequate solid and liquid waste management practices and poor drainage systems were major problems identified in the Municipality. The paper argues that water, drainage systems and logistics for waste management in deprived communities must be provided by the local government and service providers through public–private partnership agreements. We conclude that, planning rules, regulations and procedures should be strictly adhered to and vigorously enforced by the Municipality in order to have a well-organized and planned urban environment.

What has poverty got to do with it? Analysis of household access to improved sanitation in Ghana

This paper investigates antecedents to demand for household sanitation in Ghana. We employed a sequential, mixed-method approach, relying on the 2011 Ghana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) and primary qualitative data generated from individual and group interviews. The aim was to ascertain the role of household assets (measured by household wealth) in access to improved sanitation in Ghana. The study found that although wealth positively influenced household ownership of improved sanitation, the effect is strongly noticed only at the pinnacle of wealth quintiles (the richest households). From the qualitative data, we find that, beyond poverty, a mix of cultural, social, political and economic nuances influenced and somehow perpetuate low access to improved sanitation in Ghanaian households. We therefore surmise that means targeting of the poor and application of social marketing of sanitation in both rural and urban areas can help trigger awareness and demand for improved sanitation in Ghana.

Meeting and missing targets: the public health dynamics of water and sanitation in Ghana.

Meeting and missing targets: the public health dynamics of water and sanitation in Ghana.

Constraints and motivations to sanitation business in peri-urban communities in Ghana

Ghana lags behind the Millennium Development Goals' target for sanitation, despite widespread effort by the central government. Lessons from the historical shortcomings of Ghana's sanitation policy now call for public–private partnership in the management of sanitation in Ghana. Using observations and in-depth interviews with small-scale sanitation service providers, this study investigated the constraints and motivations of sanitation-related businesses in peri-urban communities in the Ningo–Prampram district of Ghana. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data analyses and reporting. The study found that there exist various sanitation-related businesses such as masons/latrine builders, hardware suppliers and pit-emptier, in the study area whose activities are constrained by some financial, logistical, institutional and social challenges which limit their performance. Nonetheless, the operation of a sanitation business in the study communities was found profitable, and service providers are motivated by the financial returns and other non-financial benefits to remain and continue in their respective businesses. Policy efforts by the government and other stakeholders toward addressing the constraints to sanitation business are crucial for increased private sector participation and better service delivery to all stakeholders in the sanitation market, and the Ghanaian economy as a whole.

A Political Economy of Privatization Contracts: The Case of Water and Sanitation in Ghana and Argentina

In general, the process and outcomes of privatization have been studied from the point of view of efficiency. In this article, we consider issues in the course of contract design, implementation, management and enforcement in privatized public services and utilities. The study is based on two case studies, involving several water concessions in Argentina and a management contract in the urban water sector in Ghana. Three key arguments are presented on the basis of these case studies. The first is that an individualistic analytical framework is often utilized by the mainstream economic perspectives, but these are inadequate for a comparative assessment of private versus public provision in public services where there are distinct collective or group interests and hence a wider socio-economic context and representation of different interests becomes highly important. Instead, the article proposes a political economy perspective, which pays due attention to distributional issues, group interests, ideology of states and power relations for the assessment of privatization contracts. Second, the administrative capacity of states and their resources play a key role for the outcomes of privatization. Finally, while some contractual issues could be resolved through resourcing and experience over time, others are inherent to the contractual relations with little prospect of remedy.

Water and sanitation in Ghana

Ghana faces serious constraints to meeting the challenge of providing adequate water and sanitation for its rural and urban inhabitants. This study examined water and sanitation in Ghana and looked at the performance of water and sanitation sector in the urban and rural areas. Data collated from water and sanitation agencies in the urban and rural sector were collected on the current state of the two sectors in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The performance of urban water supply by Ghana Water Company Limited is poor with a disputed coverage of about 60%. About 50% of the Company’s water production is still lost through un-accounted-for water. Rural water supply has coverage of 53% comprising of boreholes, hand-dug wells, and small-piped systems. Sanitation problems in Ghana have been tackled structurally, only recently. Financial constraint have been identified as a key factor hindering our chances of achieving the Millennium Development Goals coupled with the lack of proper databases on water and sanitation.

Behavioral indicators of household decision-making and demand for sanitation and potential gains from social marketing in Ghana

Household demand for improved sanitation in developing countries is an important social and behavioral process with implications for public health, sanitation policy and planning, and sanitation design and technology development. This paper develops a behavioral approach to assess household demand for improved sanitation in Ghana. Adoption decision stages of preference, intention, and choice to install a toilet in Ghana are defined, measured in a survey, and used to estimate sanitation demand, identify factors affecting demand at each stage, and classify households by adoption stage to identify targeted demand-stimulation strategies. Results from a representative national sample of 536 households indicate that of 74% of households without any home sanitation, 31% have some likelihood of installing a toilet within the next year, but only 6% are very likely to do so; 62% had not considered the idea. Motivating and constraining factors are compared at each adoption stage and strategies likely to increase toilet installation in Ghana discussed. The approach is useful for assessing behavioral indicators of sanitation demand in developing countries and suggesting where marketing approaches can and cannot work to accelerate adoption of household sanitation improvements.

Rent Seeking, Noncompensated Transfers, and Laws of Succession

My purpose in this paper is to analyze inefficiencies that may emerge from the noncompensated transfer of valued rights among persons. This source of inefficiency has not, to my knowledge, been fully incorporated either in the economic theory of property rights or in orthodox tax analysis. My discussion is based on the elementary fact that all noncompensated transfers are rents to the recipients. Implications for the emergence of rent-seeking behavior follow straightforwardly. The now-familiar propositions to the effect that rent seeking may dissipate economic value can be applied to a variety of transfer settings, only a few of which are explored in this paper.1 To the extent that the efficiency criterion is the relevant norm, direct implications may be drawn for policy with respect to the laws or rules for succession.