Developing Approaches towards Sustainable Sanitation in an Urbanizing Environment

Access to potable drinking water and basic sanitation facilities has been a big challenge to many urban dwellers living in the informal settlements of developing countries. Provision of basic urban services has not been easy for many local authorities in developing countries due to rapid urbanization caused by natural population growth, an influx of rural-urban drifts, urban to urban migrations and international emigration. Worldwide, one out of five people do not have access to safe, affordable drinking water and sufficient sanitation. Of the 6 billion world population, around 1.1 billion people globally do not have access to improved water supply, while 2.6 billion people do not have access to any type of improved sanitation facility. Efforts to prevent death from diarrhoea or to reduce the burden of water and sanitation related diseases are doomed to failure unless people have access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. Ghana is off track in achieving the MDGs. Access to basic sanitation facilities, such as toilets, are still a luxury to many, including urban dwellers, who are compelled to join long queues on a daily basis in order to attend the call of nature, leading to a situation of open defecation along the beaches and in bushes. "26% of Ghanaians today rely on pan (bucket) latrines which have since been banned by the Supreme Court. Indeed, the national average for sewerage coverage is as low as 4.5%." Meaning, of the 22.5 million national populations, only the minority 1.01 million have access to full bore water borne sewerage system in Ghana, and the majority 21.5 million have no access to water borne safe sanitation. "Only Tema and Accra municipalities have a partial sewerage system. At the moment, only 7 out of the 44 sewerage treatment plants in Ghana work." In Ghana most urban and peri-urban households use public communal toilets or latrines while a majority of rural households defecate in open areas. Public toilets are run mostly by local governments, charging a fee of 10 Ghanaian Pesewas (Gp.) or 6 US dollar cents per visit. This situation has led to unsanitary community practices that have contributed to widespread environmental degradation and has left a large population exposed to environmental health risks as a result of inadequate human excreta disposal and wastewater management. This research tries to explore and develop approaches towards sustainable sanitation solutions for the urban poor living in Ayigya. The possible approaches reviewed range from public pay and use communal toilets, shared sanitation facilities, yard-level and individual home-based sanitation facilities to be achieved through a gradual incremental basis. To help sanitation for the urban poor enter the era of sustainable development five community participatory models have been reviewed and discussed in the literature namely: (i) strategic urban planning for sanitation, (ii) community-led total sanitation, (iii) sanitation marketing, (iv) decentralized wastewater management and (v) sanitation mapping. These new community participatory paradigms of effecting settlement upgrading with respect to sanitation improvements for slum dwellers ought to encompass 3 urban renewal options; (a) upgrading and conservation, (b) rehabilitation and renovation, and (c) redevelopment, including the option of no development needs to be considered. The fieldwork research methods and techniques included a joint sample survey of 180 households and detailed individual survey of 40 households, 30 public toilet users and 10 individual households with home toilets and shared sanitation facilities. Data collection methods varied from structured household questionnaires, semi-structured in-depth interviews, and expert interviews with resources persons, 2 focussed group discussions, direct participant/non participant fieldwork observations and photography. The joint survey revealed that more than 85% have no direct access to potable drinking water and 73% of the households have no adequate sanitation facilities. The individual survey revealed that 73% (21,900) of the local inhabitants have no access to improved sanitation facilities and more than 90% (27,000) have no access to potable water supply. People buy water from neighbourhood sellers on a daily basis, and use "pay and use" public communal toilets. The results revealed widespread user dissatisfaction as a result of flies and odour nuisance, long walking distances, queuing during peak rush hours, long waiting time, absence of proper anal cleaning materials, dirty surroundings, lack of hand washing facilities, lack of privacy, lack of comfort, inconvenience, reports of urinary infections in women and overuse of conveniences. The study also revealed rampant unsanitary community practices such as: open defecation, use of flying toilets, in house defecation in simple buckets by children and pregnant mothers, surface discharge of untreated wastewater and almost complete absence of hand washing facilities for use after defecating. Both the pay and public use, yard level shared sanitation facilities and individual toilets generally perform very poorly in this urbanizing environment of Ayigya. The existing sanitation facilities were mainly characterized by inadequate human waste disposal and lack of wastewater management systems due to faulty designs, poor workmanship, and used substandard construction materials worsened by the inhabitant's unsanitary behaviours towards sanitation.