Water and sanitation issues require attention in the district. The district capital – Dadieso is the only community in the district that enjoys pipe borne water provided in 2010 under the ‘Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA). The rest of the communities either have one or two boreholes with some of them are not functioning well. Out of a total of thirty-one (31) boreholes in the district, nine of them are not functioning well.

The pipe system runs on only one borehole instead of the three recommended. Thus, the flow of water is erratic. Majority of the communities that do not have boreholes rely on unprotected wells. There are over two hundred unprotected wells in these communities which serve as sources of water for drinking and for other domestic activities. Some of the communities in the hinterlands also depend solely on rivers and streams. Sanitation in the district has improved significantly with the introduction of two skip trucks for refuse collection in 2012. There are twelve (12) refuse containers placed at vantage points across the District capital Dadieso and Karlo, the next biggest community in the district. Most of the other smaller communities also have places marked out for dumping of refuse.

Main Source of Drinking Water and for other Domestic use.
Main source of drinking water

The availability of and accessibility to improved drinking water is an important aspect of the health of household members. The UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Seven aimed to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015 based on 1990 levels. For instance, one of the main health benefits of clean drinking water supply is a reduction in diarrhea. Table 8.10 presents information on the main sources of drinking water for dwelling units in Suaman District.

Majority of urban households (36.1%) use protected well as the main source of drinking water, followed by borehole/pump/tube well (23.9%) with the least source being rain water (0.1%). Protected well recorded more usage by urban than rural households (11.8%). More households in the rural areas reported using river/stream (46.2%) and unprotected well (17.6%) as their main source of drinking water than urban households.

Main source of water for other domestic purposes

Table 8.10shows that a higher proportion of urban households(45.8%) use protected well as the main source of water for other domestic activities compared to rural households (13.1%). Pipe-borne outside dwelling and bore-hole or tube well are mostly used by urban households than by rural households, 5.4 and 21.6 percent and 3.6 and 11.9 percent respectively. More rural households (47.6%) use rivers or streams as the main source of water for other domestic

Bathing and Toilet Facilities
Bathing facility

A bathroom may be a small walled enclosure or cubicle built with cement or wood, normally without a roof but with a door that can be locked both from inside and outside, and located either inside or outside the house. Table 8.11 shows the types of bathroom facilities used by households in the district. From the table 28.0 percent of households in urban areas use own exclusive bathroom compared to rural households (50.4%) while a large proportion of urban households (52.4%) use shared separate bathroom in same house; (5.2%) of urban households and (10.2%) of rural households use open space around their houses.

Toilet facility

Figure 8.1 and Table 8.11 shows the type of toilet facilities used by households in the district. Households in the district predominantly use the following toilet facilities; pit latrine (45.1%), no facility (21.8%) and public toilet (17.2) in the urban areas whereas pit latrine (74.9%), no facility (9.8%) and public toilet (9.9%) are used in the rural areas.