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About 200,000 houses in five municipalities in the Greater Accra and Central regions are without toilets.

The municipalities are Cape Coast and Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem in the Central Region, and Ga South, Ga West and Ga Central in the Greater Accra Region.

This was contained in a Sanitation Market Survey Report delivered at a sanitation entrepreneurial forum on the Ghana–Netherlands Wash Programme (GNWP) in Accra last Tuesday. The survey was commissioned by Hope For Future Generations (HFFG) and conducted by WASHealth Solutions, a women and children-focused non-governmental organisation (NGO).

The forum was attended by sanitation entrepreneurs, local artisans, microfinance institutions and other stakeholders connected with sanitation. Discussions centred on the outcomes of the survey and related issues. 

Common toilet facilities
Giving details of the survey, the Director of WASHealth Solutions, Mr Stephen Ntow, said the Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) latrine was the most commonly used toilet facility in the municipalities, in addition to flush toilets that were connected to septic tanks and pit latrines with slab covers. 

He said sanitation in the metropolises under discussion was poorly funded.

For instance, he said, 57 per cent of households  in the five municipalities financed the construction and installation of the septic tanks using their own resources, while 25 per cent relied on support from families and friends.

He said residents who were interviewed spoke of the long distances they had to cover to get to the nearest public toilet facility, coupled with the fee they had to pay and the long periods they had to wait to use the facility as disincentives. 

Business opportunities
He said entrepreneurs needed to take advantage of the market available for setting up latrines and segment them according to the needs of the people and invest in them.

“Put it out there, let the people who need it know and meet them at the point where  you will understand what their specific needs are because once you address their requirements, they will be willing to pay for it,” he said.

The Project Coordinator for HFFG, Ms Janet Dufie Arthur, expressed the hope that the participants in the forum would take advantage of the business opportunities available and tap into them.

She said adequate investment in providing toilets would reduce the problem of open defaecation and also ensure that all households within the five municipalities under the watch of HFFG were effectively catered for.