WATER

Access to safe water and sound environmental practices constitute essential ingredients for safeguarding the health and lives of the people.  Sources of water in the district are piped water, boreholes; hand-dug wells fitted with pump, open hand dug wells, rivers/streams and rain water. Boreholes are the commonest sources of drinking water for the people in the District. 

About 75% of the people depend on it, followed by well water constituting 15% and then stream or river.  Pipe borne water is not very much accessible to the people in the District. Only Mamponteng has a small town water system. What is worthy to note is that rivers and streams being used as source of drinking water often dry up thus making water supply difficult especially during the dry season, depriving about 10% of the people who depends on this source in the District to get access to drinking water.

Supply from streams is usually prone to many water related diseases.  Such diseases affect the health of a substantial part of the productive time of women and children who are at school going age. Potable water coverage in the District is about 85%. Almost all the 42 communities have access to potable water. The problem, however, is adequacy especially the peri-urban communities and the small towns where small town water systems will be needed

Currently, the District, in collaboration with the Community Water and Sanitation Agency is constructing 200 boreholes under the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI) with financial support from the Government of Ghana and the African Development Bank, to increase access of potable water to a greater proportion of the population.

SANITATION

The practice of good sanitation and sound environmental practices ensure the quality of health of the people. Unfortunately, the sanitation situation in the District is still deplorable.

Toilet facilities available in the district are KVIPs, aqua privy, pit and VIP (household) latrines. Majority of the people (54%) depend on public toilet facility while the remaining (20%) have access to private place of convenience.  The inadequacy of public toilet facilities compels some of the people to dispose of human excreta in bush (5%) while a good number of them use to bury their human waste behind their house whiles the remaining (21%) use pit latrine.

 It is against this background that the Assembly in collaboration with the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) is promoting the construction of over 2000 household latrines in the District under the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI). So far 800 household latrines have been constructed.

DRAINAGE

Most communities do not have properly constructed drainage system. Waste water from households gathers in gullies or flows into the streets and become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other disease vectors. About 82% use the free flow method to get rid of their wastewater, 12% use the drains and 6% use soak away method.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

The insanitary methods of waste disposal are largely responsible for the frequent occurrence of disease such as malaria and other intestinal infections. Refuse disposal is still open dumping system. In some rural communities they bury or burn refuses at their backyard.

Generally, dumping sites are not properly managed leading to huge scattered refuse.

However, the District Assembly in collaboration with Zoomlion Ghana Limited, a private waste management company, is managing the sanitation situation in the District.  The challenge however is the difficulty in the acquisition of final disposal site.