Non-Water Sanitation in Ghana
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Sanitation Projects in Ghana
Non-Water Sanitation e.V. has been exploring possibilities to create a positive impact in Ghana since November 2017. During the last months, we have build strong ties with local NGO's and have identified the first projects we will be implementing during the course of 2018 - 2019. Two of these projects in the pipeline are presented below. Other projects still require the feedback and Go of local government representatives or partner organizations.
A Peri-Urban Town
Medie is a town just outside of Accra on the road to Kumasi with around 25.000 inhabitants. The socio-economic structure is mixed with having around 1/3 being farmers and the rest working in a few local factories, as owners of a petty shop or commuting to Accra. At the moment there are 3 public toilets with each serving around 1.000 people per day.
A visit to the public toilet costs around 0,5 GHC (~0,20 €). Apart from this they are in poor hygienic conditions despite a cleaning service, and have limited opening hours. Waste water streams and solid wastes are all over the town. Water is cut of regularly and many households need to fetch water from a distant borehole. However the town is fairly developed in regards to housing, availability of electricity, or mobile phones.
Our local partner on the ground is the NGO “Move the World” which does community building and education through music and dancing for the last 5 years. They will help us in the education part of the project. The town is also eligible for funds from the regional governmental sanitation fund for constructing household toilets. This can cover some costs, however the households are not able to contribute their 30% of the costs because of their poverty.
Medie is a town just outside of Accra on the road to Kumasi with around 25.000 inhabitants. The socio-economic structure is mixed with having around 1/3 being farmers and the rest working in a few local factories, as owners of a petty shop or commuting to Accra. At the moment there are 3 public toilets with each serving around 1.000 people per day.
A visit to the public toilet costs around 0,5 GHC (~0,20 €). Apart from this they are in poor hygienic conditions despite a cleaning service, and have limited opening hours. Waste water streams and solid wastes are all over the town. Water is cut of regularly and many households need to fetch water from a distant borehole. However the town is fairly developed in regards to housing, availability of electricity, or mobile phones.
Our local partner on the ground is the NGO “Move the World” which does community building and education through music and dancing for the last 5 years. They will help us in the education part of the project. The town is also eligible for funds from the regional governmental sanitation fund for constructing household toilets. This can cover some costs, however the households are not able to contribute their 30% of the costs because of their poverty.
Medie project
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The Problem
The city of Medie, just north of Accra with approximately 25.000 inhabitants has only a few public toilets for its inhabitants which are often extremely unclean and there is a need for improved sanitation. |
The Solution
An ecological sanitation project for 1000 households. The project will directly contribute to the creation of jobs, improve health, bring opportunities to the community and engage local WASH champions. |
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Project Activities
Activities will center around awareness raising, demand creation, training, coordinating the construction of toilets and business model validation and engaging the local youth to make sanitation their ‚business‘. |
Project Impact
is quantifiable in the number of people going from OD to using toilets, the amount of water saved, jobs created, the improvement of the community’s health, as well as the money families save by switching from the use of public toilets to the proposed models. |
Mafi Adiepke School Project
Background
Mafi Adiepke is a village in the Central Tongu District in the Volta Region of Ghana with approximately 1000 people. There is a general awareness about the importance of a toilet amongst the people in the village. Villagers have agreed to give support in terms of labour and materials, majority of which will be sourced locally.
The School
The school started as a community based school but was soon adopted by the government and is now a government school with 5 professional teachers. Likely to expand, at the moment, the school has 250 children from the ages of 2 to 17 years including kindergarten. There is already some preliminary awareness on water sanitation and hygiene and a teacher who heads WaSH related awareness. In addition, tippy taps (low cost hand washing stations) have been installed at the school for hand washing purposes and space has also been made available for composting purposes.
The Problem
The Mafi Adiepke Roman Catholic School Project
Timeline and Milestones
Phase 1
Mafi Adiepke is a village in the Central Tongu District in the Volta Region of Ghana with approximately 1000 people. There is a general awareness about the importance of a toilet amongst the people in the village. Villagers have agreed to give support in terms of labour and materials, majority of which will be sourced locally.
The School
The school started as a community based school but was soon adopted by the government and is now a government school with 5 professional teachers. Likely to expand, at the moment, the school has 250 children from the ages of 2 to 17 years including kindergarten. There is already some preliminary awareness on water sanitation and hygiene and a teacher who heads WaSH related awareness. In addition, tippy taps (low cost hand washing stations) have been installed at the school for hand washing purposes and space has also been made available for composting purposes.
The Problem
- Even with 250 students, there are no toilet facilities in the school.
- This hinders girls from attending the school especially when they are menstruating.
- Households also don't have any toilets therefore people turn to the outdoors which besides giving rise to health and hygiene problems lead to instances of snake bites.
The Mafi Adiepke Roman Catholic School Project
- Training and awareness raising
- Build 2 prototypes with the community for the school. 90% of the materials will be sourced from the natural resources in the village.
- Children under the age of 6 would use one simple dry toilet and children above the age of 6 would use the UDDTs.
- The two toilets will serve as showcases and allow a complete test run, going through the entire cycle of use and composting etc.
- When the prototypes work and the community has adapted to them and finds them useful, there will be training for unemployed youth from the village to build these toilets, which they then could do not only for their community but also surrounding communities leading them to become change-makers that take complete ownership of their empowerment.
Timeline and Milestones
Phase 1
- Build the 2 prototypes and training on importance and usage of toilets.
- Quality control, feedback and more education on sanitation and hygiene in cooperation with the school staff.
- Expand to 8 toilets for the entire school with the help of the village community.
- Additional workshops with school children and the community, toilet building workshops
- Inauguration of composting sites, training on the composting.
- Additionally, there will also be training on menstrual hygiene.
- Form a local sanitation task force of older students that can build toilets for the households.
- Train them on the importance of using a toilet.
- Train them on how to engage the entire community and champion the Ecosan model for every household.
- Support unemployed local youth to build a small toilet construction business to be able to supply
neighboring villages with sanitation facilities