Main source of drinking water

More than seventy percent of all households in the district use borehole/pump/tube well (73.9%) as their main source of drinking water. The rest are c public tap/standpipe (5.6%), pipe borne outside dwelling (4.1%), pipe borne inside dwelling (1.2%) and protected wells (0.9%). However, rural households (74.7%) are more likely than their urban counterparts (70.1%) to have borehole/pump/tube well as their source of drinking water. Furthermore, river/stream is a more important source of water for rural areas than urban areas (13.2% versus 0.1%) while the reverse is true for dugout/pond/lake/dam/canal (8.2% versus 0.3%).

Main source of water for other domestic use

The pattern of distribution is similar to that of sources of water for drinking. Borehole is the main source of water for other domestic uses at the district level (63.8%) and in urban (62.3%) and rural areas (64.2%). Almost a quarter of rural households (22.8%) use river/stream water for other domestic chores compared to less than one percent of rural households. It appears households in urban areas can afford to use pipe borne water for other uses than rural households. A combined total of 19.2 percent of urban households have access to any form of pipe borne water for other domestic uses compares with only 9.5 percent of rural households.

Bathing and Toilet Facilities by Households and by Locality

8.8.1 Bathing facilities by household and by locality Bathing facilities available in dwelling units can be categorized primarily into four main types: bathroom for exclusive use, shared bathroom in the same house, shared open bathing cubicle and others. From Table 8.12 the proportion of households with bathrooms exclusively used by household members is 39 percent and another 28 percent have separate bathrooms shared with other non-household members.

Eleven percent of the households share an open cubicle as a bathroom with others in the compound and 10.0 percent have private open cubicles. Households that use open spaces around the house constitute five percent of households and another 5.0 percent use public bath house. However, those who use rivers, lakes, dams and ponds are less than one percent.

As shown in the table, while majority of dwelling units in urban areas (52.2%) have bathrooms for exclusive use only 36.5 percent of their rural counterparts have them. More dwelling units in rural areas (29.3%) use shared separate bathroom in the same house than urban areas (20.1%). Dwelling units that do not have proper bathrooms and use private or shared open cubicles and open space around house are almost in equal proportions in both rural and urban areas.

Sanitation 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 and the district at large. Figure 8.1 shows that four main types of toilet facilities used in the Tatale-Sanguli District were reported in the 2010, PHC. Majority of people in the district (81.0%) do not have toilet facilities and use the bush/beach/open field. This is followed by Kumasi Ventilated Improved Pit Latrine (KVIP) 6.0percent and pit latrine 4.0 percent while water closet (WC) is less than zero percent.

About 81 percent of household dwellings are without sanitation facilities leading to open defecation in the district with associated disease conditions. As far as the rural-urban situation is concerned, 73.1 percent of rural localities have no toilet facilities. In urban localities on the other hand, the proportion is eight percent, much lower than the situation in rural areas. About four percent of rural households use pit latrines as against less than one percent in urban localities. The use of the KVIP, in urban and rural localities is almost three and 3percent respectively.