Main Source of Water of Dwelling Unit for Drinking and

other Domestic Purposes

Safe water is life and its importance for good health and sanitation cannot be over-emphasized. The affordability and accessibility to potable drinking water is important to 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 (2010 PHC Analytical Report).

The main sources of water for drinking in the District are borehole (63.6%) and river or stream (11.9%). A cumulative proportion of 18.2 percent of households use pipe borne water (inside dwelling, outside dwelling and public tap/standpipe) for drinking and 1.6 percent of households use sachet water (Table 8.10). In all, 86.8 percent of the households use improved sources of water for drinking whereas 13.2 percent depend on unimproved sources of drinking water.

The sources of water used for other domestic purposes are almost the same as those used for drinking water. More than half of the households depend on boreholes (59.0%), river or stream (14.1%), pipe borne water (19.2%) and protected well (3.1%). Most communities along the Lake also depend on it as major source of water for other domestic uses. The rest of the households depend on rain water is (0.4%), protected spring (0.6%) and tanker supply (0.1%) for other domestic use (Table 8.11).

Bathing and Toilet Facilities

Access to sanitation is a critical component to the health and well-being of communities. Figure 8.3 indicates that 54.2 percent of the households use public toilet (WC, KVIP, Pit Latrine), 22.3 percent use pit latrine, 8.4 percent use KVIP and 4.8 percent depend on WC. However, 10.0 percent of the households have no toilet facilities and defecate in the bush. This can be dangerous especially in the night as people venture into the bush and during rainy season as the residue may be washed by running water into the main streams which are sources of water supply for some of the households.

Bathing facilities, indicated in Table 8.12, shows that 36.5 percent of households own bathrooms for exclusive use, followed by 28.4 percent who share separate bathrooms in the same house. About 9 percent of households use bath rooms in another house. Households using private open cubicles and those who share open cubicles are (8.0%) and (8.2 %) respectively. Also 7.4 percent of households use open spaces around their houses for bathing. A relatively low proportion of households use public bath house (0.2%). About 2.4 percent of households located along the Lake use it for bathing.

Method of Waste Disposal

Table 8.13 shows that in the Bosome Freho District, most households (83.8%) dispose of their solid waste at public dumps, either in containers (13.5 percent) or in open spaces (70.3 percent). The proportions of households that have their solid waste collected or burned are 3.0 percent and 3.8 percent respectively. Households that buried their solid waste constitute 2.6 percent. However, relatively small proportion of households (5.9%) dump their solid waste indiscriminately to the risk of the environment.

Table 8.13 again shows that almost half of households (47.8%) throw their liquid waste onto the compound of their homes. Another 38.1 percent of households throw their liquid waste either onto the street or outside their houses, while 8.4 percent throw their liquid waste straight into gutters. Households that dispose of their liquid waste through sewerage systems and drainage systems are 2.0 percent and 2.4 percent respectively. Only little proportions of households, about one in ten dispose their liquid waste into soak away.