Main Source of Water for drinking and for other domestic use

 Main source of drinking water

The availability of and accessibility of goAod source of 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.

Water sources are often classified as ‘improved’ or ‘unimproved’: Sources considered as improved are piped public water into homes, public standpipe, borehole, protected (lined) dug well, protected spring, and rainwater collection; unimproved are unprotected wells and springs, vendors, and tanker-trucks (WHO and UNICEF, 2000). The main source of drinking water in the district is presented in Table 8.9.

Household drinking water obtained from the two main source of drinking water are as sources as follows: borehole/pump/tube well (42.5%) and river/stream (38.2%). Again this is to be expected especially given the inland nature of the district. Bottled water and unprotected spring recorded the least sources of drinking water in households.

The situation is not different in urban centers as it is in the entire district. Borehole/pump/tube well (35.5%)and river/stream(37.1%) constitute the main sources of drinking water of the dwelling units with bottled water(0.1%) and unprotected spring (0.1%)recording the least.

The major source of drinking water for rural households is bore hole/pump/tube well (44.9%) followed by the river or the stream as shown figure 8.3. Close to one-fourth (37.1%) of households used the river or the stream as their main source of drinking water.

Sources of water for domestic use

The source of water for domestic use was similar to drinking water with the exception of sachet and bottled water. The use of river/stream for other domestic purposes was still high for the two localities; urban (39.3%) and rural (40.3%). Public tap/standpipe provided source of water for other domestic purposes was dominant in the urban (12.9%) than rural (4.9%).

Bathing and Toilet Facilities 

The distribution of households by type of toilet and bathing facilities according to place of residence and is district presented in this section. 

Toilet facilities use by Households 

Table 8.10 presents the distribution of households by type of toilet facilities in the District. Close to half of the total households (44.2%) with no facility (bush/beach). About two out of ten (23.7%) of the households were reported to be using public toilets, whiles 22.5 percent use pit latrine.

There exist disparities in the use of toilet facilities in the urban and rural localities. Unsurprisingly, more rural households still use the “free-range” system, no toilet facility (52.3%) more than the urban (21.0%).

With regard to the use of KVIP, close to one-fifth (17.1%) of households in urban areas use the facilities whereas less than one –tenth (6.1%) of rural households use the facility (5.8%) as compared to urban households of 2.7 percent. 
8.8.2 Bathing facility used by households 

There were clear differences between households in rural-urban localities and the types of bathing facilities used. Almost 30 percent (29.4%) of households in urban localities share separate bathrooms in the same house as compared to 12.6 percent of households in rural areas. There were relatively more households in rural areas (35.4%) that had their own bathrooms for exclusive use as compare to the proportion of urban households (23.6%). 57 

Households in rural localities who use open space around house are 26.2 percent whilst 102 percent of urban households use similar facility.

Method of Waste disposal

Waste and its management is arguably the most crucial environmental challenge facing Ghanaian communities and therefore the need for sustainable waste management approaches cannot be overemphasized. 

Method of Solid Waste

Table 8.11 shows the methods by which rubbish or solid and liquid waste is disposed by households in the District.
Thirty percent of households in the District use the public dump (open space) to dispose of their solid waste. Dumping indiscriminately as a method of waste disposal was used by 25.1 percent of households whilst about 15.8 percent of households use the public dump (container).