Bathing and Toilet Facilities

An efficient and hygienic method of human waste disposal available in a dwelling unit is a critical indicator of the sanitary condition of the unit and is an indirect measure of the socio-economic status of a household. Bathing facility type in the Municipality is described in Table 8.11. Majority of the people in Ashaiman resort to shared separate bathroom in same house and this is in the majority representing 38.5 percent. A number of people have own bathroom for exclusive use amounting to 14.8 percent but shared open cubicle bathroom type accounts for 28.3 percent and is the second highest in the Municipality.

As can be seen from Table 8.10, tanker supply/vendor provided water (52.0%) is the most used for other domestic activities in the Municipality and the urban areas (59.8%) recorded a higher percentage of households depending on this source than the rural areas (38.5%). The percentage of households depending on pipe-borne water outside dwelling is higher in rural areas (30.2%) than in urban areas (17.7%). Also a higher percentage of the households use pipe-borne water inside dwelling in rural areas (17.7%) than in urban areas (11.6%).

Bathing and toilet facilities

Table 8.11 shows that 36.6 percent of households in the Municipality have their own exclusively bathroom while 23.7 percent of all the households use shared open cubicle. Less than two-fifth (18.6%) of households use separate bathroom shared in the same house with other households. The percentage of households depending on shared open cubicle is higher in rural areas (26.4%) than in urban areas (22.1%).

Figure 8.3 shows that about one-third (32.2%) of households in the Municipality use WC. and (16.4%) use public toilets. The proportion of households that do not have toilet facilities is higher in rural areas (26.5%) than urban areas (21.8%). Also, more households use public toilets in the rural areas (17.7%) than in the urban areas (15.6%). The percentage of households using WC is about the same in rural and urban areas. About one-fourth (23.5%) of households do not have toilet facilities. The proportion of households without toilet facility is higher in rural households (26.5%) than in urban households (23.5%).

Method of Waste Disposal

Table 8.12 presents different methods of solid waste disposal by households in the Adentan Municipality. The most common method of solid waste disposal is collection (45.8%). More than one-quarter (27.1%) of households burn their solid waste. It is also observed that 11.3 percent of households dump their solid waste in containers while 10.0 percent of the households dump in open spaces. Dumping of solid waste indiscriminately is practiced by 4.0 percent of the households. The proportion of households dumping waste indiscriminately is higher in rural areas (5.2%) than in urban areas (3.2%).

Table 8.12 further shows that 48.4 percent of households in the Municipality throw their liquid waste onto the compounds of their houses, 15.4 percent throw their liquid waste onto the street and 10.5 percent throw theirs into a soak away. Throwing of liquid waste onto the street is higher in urban areas (17.7%) than rural areas (11.7%). However, throwing of liquid waste onto the compound is higher in rural areas (51.9%) than urban areas (46.3%).