Water and Sanitation

Water and Sanitation presents statistics on the main sources of water for drinking and other domestic uses by households.

Table of contents

1. Highlights
   • Access to drinking water
   • Access to toilet facilities
   • Disposal of waste
2. Background Information
3. Definition of Concepts
4. Related Links

Highlights

Access to drinking water

Households with basic drinking water services constitute 87.7 percent, and this varies between urban (96.4%) and rural (74.4%) areas. Savannah (55.1%) and North East (54.8%) regions have the lowest with Greater Accra (97.6%) and Ashanti (94.5%) regions having the highest proportions.

Figure 1: Proportion of Households With Access to Basic Drinking Water Services by Type of Locality and Region

The average time households without water on their premises spend to access any source of drinking water is 19 minutes, and is generally longer in rural (22 minutes) than in urban (13 minutes) areas. In the regions, the time spent is longest in the Savannah (33 minutes), Northern and North East (32 minutes), and shortest in Central and Ashanti (13 minutes) regions.

Nine in 10 households (92.0%) have access to improved sources of drinking water and the proportion is higher for urban (97.8%) than rural (83.0%) households.

Figure 2: Main Sources of Drinking Water by Type of Locality

The three main sources of drinking water for households are sachet water (37.4%), pipe-borne water (31.7%) and borehole/tube well (17.7%). In urban areas the two main sources are sachet water (51.5%) and pipe-borne water (33.6%) while in rural areas are borehole/tube wells (33.6%) and pipe-borne water (28.8%).

Use of sachet water as the main source of drinking water is largely an urban phenomenon (51.5%). It is the most used source of drinking water in Greater Accra (70.7%) and the least in North East (1.8%), Upper East (2.2%) and Upper West (2.6%) regions.

Figure 3: Proportion of Households Using Sachet Water as Main Source of Drinking Water by Type of Locality and Region 

Acess to toilet facilities

Three in five households (59.3%) have access to a household toilet facility and the proportion is higher among urban (65.9%) than rural (49.1%) households.

Figure 4: Toilet Facility Used by Households by Type of Locality 

About 18 percent of households do not have access to a toilet facility with the proportion being over three times as much among rural (31.3%) as urban (8.9%) households.

Figure5: Proportion of Households Using Unimproved Household Toilet Facility by Type of Locality and Region

Rural households (5.1%) dominate the use of unimproved toilet facility relative to urban areas (1.1%), and show wide disparities across the regions ranging from Upper West (21.9%) to Greater Accra Region (3.4%).

In all 16 administrative regions open defaecation is prevalent, with five regions recording more than 50 percent.

Figure 6: Proportion of Households That Practice Open Defaecation by Region

For households without toilet facility, point of defaecation is bush/open field/gutter for 90 percent or more of households in all regions, except in three (Central, Western and Greater Accra) where 10 percent or more use beach/water bodies.

Disposal of waste

Only a third (33.4%) of households have their solid waste collected and the proportion is strikingly higher in urban (51.4%) than in rural (5.8%) areas. Most rural households (57.3%) use public dump/open space for solid waste disposal compared to 24.6 percent of urban households.

The most prevalent method of disposal of uncollected solid waste is burning (77.5%). Nine in 10 of urban households (88.0%) and seven in 10 of rural households (66.8%) burn their uncollected solid waste.

Figure 7: METHOD OF DISPOSAL OF UNCOLLECTED SOLID WASTE BY TYPE OF LOCALITY

The most prevalent method of disposing wastewater is throwing onto the ground/street/outside (70.6%), and this occurs in rural (88.9%) as well as urban (58.7%) areas. The least is through sewerage system (2.3%) with 3.2 percent in urban and 0.9 percent in rural areas.

The practice of disposing of wastewater by throwing onto the ground/street/outside varies widely in urban areas from 42.1 percent in Greater Accra to 86.3 percent in Bono East regions, and is less diverse in the rural with proportions from 85.7 percent in Greater Accra to 94.2 percent in Volta regions.

Background Information

Download the full report for data tables, background information and information on methodology and data quality.

Definition Of Concepts

Improved Water

This refers to water source that is likely to be protected from outside contamination such as pipe borne water, borehole, tube well, protected well, rain water, protected spring, bottled water and sachet water.

Basic Services - Drinking Water

This refers to the provision of improved sources of drinking water either in the dwelling/yard/plot or within 30 minutes round trip collection time.

Household Toilet Facility

This refers to a toilet facility that is either exclusively accessible to a household or shared with other household(s). The facility could be improved (basic and limited) or unimproved

Solid Waste

It refers to the range of garbage materials arising from animal and human activities that are discarded as unwanted and useless. Solid waste includes food waste, garden waste, plastic waste, scraps, and others.

Unimproved Toilet

This refers to a toilet facility that does not safely and hygienically separate excreta from human contact. It is a facility without a flush/pour flush (to piped sewer system, septic tank, pit latrine), a ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine without slab, a pit latrine without slab, a composting toilet without slab or a bucket/pan latrine.

Household Toilet Facility

This refers to a toilet facility that is either exclusively accessible to a household or shared with other household(s). The facility could be improved (basic and limited) or unimproved.

Related Links

Volume 3N Structures

Volume 3K Housing Characteristics

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