Main Source of Water for Drinking and for other Domestic Use

The source of water supply particularly for drinking has tremendous effect on the burden of disease in a community. The main health benefit of clean water supply is a reduction in diarrhoeal disease, although the effects on other diseases are also substantial.

Water is often classified as “improved” or “unimproved”. Sources considered as improved are household connection to public pipe borne water supply system, public standpipe, and bore-hole, protected (lined) dug well, protected spring, and rainwater collection. Unprotected wells and springs, vendors, and tanker-trucks are considered unimproved.

The main source of water for drinking and for other domestic purposes by households in occupied dwellings units in the district is shown in Table 8.10. From the Table, close to half of households (50.6%) in the district have the bore-hole/pump/tube well as their main source of drinking water followed by protected well (22.2%) and unprotected well 12.1 percent.

The remaining 15.1 percent use other sources such as bottled water, unprotected spring, rain water etc. About 85.1 percent of households in the district patronise improved sources of drinking water while the remaining 14.9 percent patronise unimproved sources.

The main source of water used by households in occupied dwelling units for other domestic purposes in the district is bore-hole/pump/tube well (49.3%), follow by protected well (22.4%) and unprotected well (12.0%) and use pipe-borne outside dwelling (4.6). Households who use public tap/standpipe forms (4.5%) whiles river/stream constitutes 2.5 percent.

Bathing and Toilet Facilities

Table 8.12 presents bathing and toilet facilities available in occupied dwelling units in the district. Bathing facilities used in the district are primarily of four main types: those owned for exclusive use constitute 28.8%, shared separated bathroom in the same house (26.6%), and shared open cubicle (15.5%) and private open cubicle (17.9%). The proportion of households that use open space around the house is 9.8 percent. Households who use public bath house is 0.8 percent as against 0.5 percent who uses bath rooms in another house.

Table 8.12 also shows he distribution of type of toilet facilities used by households in dwelling units in the district. From the table, over eighty percent (83.7%) have no facility 57

hence resort to bush, fields or beaches as place of convenience. Households using public toilet constitute (6.4%) whiles 5.3 percent use pit latrine. The remaining (4.6%) of households use WC, KVIP, Bucket/Pan and Other.

Methods of waste disposal

A major challenge of districts in Ghana is efficient solid (refuse) and liquid waste disposal. As shown in Table 8.13 there are varied forms of disposing solid waste (refuse) in the district. Public dump (open space) accounts for 31.5 percent of refuse disposal in the district follow by burning by the household (27.3%).

The proportion of households who dump solid wastes indiscriminately is 15.8 percent whiles the proportion of households whose solid wastes is collected is 11.1 percent. Other proportions of solid waste disposal include public dump (container) (2.6%), buried by household (9.0%) and other (2.6 %).

The majority of households in the district as shown in Table 8.12 dispose of liquid waste by either throwing onto the street/outside (44.4%) or throwing onto compound (35.3%). Approximately 12 percent of households dispose of their liquid waste through drainage system into a pit (soak away).