No toilet at home: implementation, usage and acceptability of shared toilets in urban Ghana

In Ghana, over 70% of urban dwellers do not have private sanitation facilities in their home and rely instead on an informal network of shared toilets. The predominance of shared toilets in Ghana is the result of unplanned urbanization, specific features of housing, socio-economic characteristics of the population and political orientations. Shared sanitation includes a whole range of models from large toilets blocks owned by the municipality to toilet cubicles shared by tenants of the same house. Shared toilets are not considered as improved sanitation facilities as access for vulnerable groups, maintenance, hygiene, privacy and safety of the users are not always guaranteed. However, for millions of urban dwellers, shared toilets are the only alternative to open defecation and are used daily. Some of these facilities, through better management models and through better standards, provide services appreciated by the users. The aim of this research is to determine which models of shared facilities are acceptable sanitation solutions for urban dwellers, depending on the local circumstances. To do so, the research framework compares the perspectives of dwellers and sanitation providers, acknowledges the characteristics of the specific urban context and considers the relationships between the key stakeholders. In a fast growing city in Ghana, Ashaiman, 432 house units representing over 8000 residents were surveyed, over 40 participatory exercises and 38 interviews with a range of stakeholders were conducted. This research concludes on four main points. Firstly, many apparently similar areas are actually not uniform; the heterogeneity of urban planning and housing influences any past and future sanitation developments. Urban planners need to integrate sanitation in their future decisions but base these on appropriate solutions. The second finding is that some models of shared sanitation can be considered as adequate given the particular context and its likely evolution. The different models have legitimacy at different stages of urban development and their successful selection depends on the quality of the contextual understanding. Thirdly, cleanliness and affordability are key determinants when the dwellers select shared toilets. Given the toilet options available, these determinants are often mutually exclusive and are a dilemma for the users. This dilemmas result in variations in use of shared toilets within a neighbourhood, and at intra household and individual levels. The final point is that choice and then acceptability of a facility depends on the options available. Therefore deciding which facilities are best adapted to the local context should be in the hands of both local providers and dwellers, supported by other local stakeholders who enable relationships through adapted policies and facilitated dialogues

Barriers and Opportunities for Sanitation SMEs: A Study of the Wider Market System in Ghana

This Topic Brief presents a study of the wider market barriers and opportunities facing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in sanitation in Ghana.Conducted by i-San, the study aimed to understand the impact of these factors on the ability of businesses to reach low-income urban communities with appropriate products and services.Major barriers to entry for sanitation start-ups in Ghana are the lack of start-up capital; lack of access to affordable banking services (particularly the cost of borrowing); inadequate public infrastructure; and the high cost of creating partnerships with the public sector.Ghana's challenging micro-economic climate is the primary barrier impacting the viability of sanitation SMEs. This includes high interest rates; limited access to operational finance; currency depreciation; and high cost of utility.The study identified several opportunities to support sanitation SMEs in Ghana, including innovative finance; training and business development support; reinforcement of representative associations; and reinforcing the policy and regulatory environment

Reconsidering shared sanitation facilities in sub-Saharan African cities: the example of Freetown, Sierra Leone

Innovative sanitation programmes such as Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) or sanitation marketing concentrate on the development of individual sanitation. However such provisions are not always feasible in urban settlements due to economical and physical constraints. Urban dwellers are facing a limited range of sanitation options. Amongst them, shared facilities are often the only alternative to open defecation, however the implementers do not always consider all of the shared sanitation options available to them and their appropriateness from the user perspective. Based on examples from Freetown, this paper calls for a reconsideration of shared sanitation facilities by donors, urban planners and researchers. This reconsideration should take into account the acceptability and value of different sanitation facilities to the users through participatory methods, that acknowledge the range of shared options available to urban dwellers

Should NGOs lead post-emergency sanitation marketing? Experience from Jacmel, Haiti

The town of Jacmel suffered extensive damage to housing and infrastructure, loss of life and social upheaval following the earthquake in 2010 that affected large parts of Haiti. Since 2012, Save the Children-Haiti has been implementing a programme to improve sanitation facilities and services in the town. A Sanitation Marketing and Behaviour Change Communication strategy has been developed and is currently being implemented as a component of this broader programme. Based on experience of facilitating the strategy process through initial formative research, developing and supporting delivery of the strategy by local actors, the authors present aspects and challenges of the process, set in the broader context of the post-emergency rehabilitation and reconstruction of Haiti. They conclude that INGOs are not best-placed to lead market-based approaches in such conditions and that sanitation marketing needs to be much more central to an overall sanitation enhancement programme to secure appropriate and sustainable outcomes

Sanitation - a neglected essential service in the unregulated urban expansion of Ashaiman, Ghana

In Ghana, over 70% of urban dwellers do not have private sanitation facilities in their home and rely instead on an informal network of shared toilets. Using results from house surveys, sanitary surveys of toilets and their observed use, this paper explores how the different type of toilets are distributed and utilized in three neighbourhoods of Ashaiman, a rapidly growing city in southern Ghana. The study reveals how and why access to sanitation facilities is influenced by the process of urban development, the distribution of the population and local urban planning policies. Differences in sanitation provision from one area of Ashaiman to another are not limited to the number and location of toilets, but also different levels of service and user fees, that impact on the daily lives of thousands of urban residents. Findings of the study indicate that provision of new sanitation facilities, individual or shared, must consider the motives of implementers, the needs and preferences of the residents and the broader urban context, where patterns of urban development play a critical role

Selection and use determinants of shared toilet facilities in Ashaiman, Ghana

In low income urban areas where a majority of houses do not have toilets, shared toilets are often seen as the last alternative to open defecation or flying toilets; and today, more than half of the urban Ghanaians rely on them. Several book chapters and papers examine the characteristics of the shared toilets from their political management to their technical design, but very little is said about how urban Ghanaians are selecting and using the few public or private shared toilets available in their neighbourhood. This paper analyses what determines the appropriate toilet for different categories of population in the large town of Ashaiman. It concludes that those determinants and the uses of toilets vary from one neighbourhood to another, from one family to another and may vary at individual level from day to day. Those variations answer with pragmatism the dilemma "price" or "cleanliness" that urban dwellers face when looking daily for a toilet

Emerging categories of urban shared sanitation

With 2.6 billion people without access to improved sanitation facilities and with a growing urban population globally, shared sanitation in the form of public or community latrines is a pragmatic way of increasing coverage, but it is currently not deemed 'improved'. This paper explores the variety of facilities that currently exist in order to identify what would enable some of these latrines to be classed as acceptable and to ensure that future shared sanitation facilities meet minimum standards. The categories mostly relate to issues of ownership, management, location and finance rather than technological considerations. An extensive literature review reveals that the users' perspective of acceptability is largely absent from current discussions

Bringing toilets back to Kumasi's compound houses: landlord and tenant behaviours and motivators

In the low-income urban communities of Kumasi, Ghana, a large part of the population live in compound housing, where they often share the same living space with more than 20 tenants. Partly resulting from the high prevalence of public toilets in the city, the vast majority of these tenants have no access to ‘inhouse’ sanitation. Led by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, a five-year strategy is being prepared to promote increased adoption, access, usage and maintenance of compound toilets in Kumasi’s lowincome communities. This paper shares the results of a desk and field-based study commissioned to inform the strategy: among the key challenges to be confronted are the clarification of responsibilities between landlords and tenants with regards to financing sanitation improvements, and the need to motivate landlords - at the hub of compound level sanitation governance - to improve the situation for the betterment of their tenants

Inclusion of shared sanitation in urban sanitation coverage? Evidence from Ghana and Uganda

This paper discusses the notions of 'improved' and 'unimproved' sanitation in the context of developing countries in urbanizing Africa and considers the role that shared facilities can play in this equation. It analyses current definitions and classifications used by the United Nations Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) to monitor access to shared sanitation and summarizes the recent discourse on JMP's limitations. Empirical evidence from two case studies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) - Kampala, Uganda and Ashaiman, Ghana - is presented, showing the widespread use and limitations of the shared toilet facilities in these two cities. The empirical evidence shows that quite different types of shared sanitation facilities emerge in different cities, each influenced by the urbanization patterns, local politics and socio-cultural considerations. Improving the quality of shared facilities involves the consideration of the applicability of the different types of facilities within the category 'shared sanitation', together with an improved understanding of the users' determinants of acceptability, such as access and cleanliness. The paper concludes with a discussion of potential indicators for shared sanitation post-2015 global monitoring, as a means of integrating shared sanitation into the overall sanitation access figures.</p

Inclusion of shared sanitation in urban sanitation coverage? Evidence from Ghana and Uganda

This paper discusses the notions of 'improved' and 'unimproved' sanitation in the context of developing countries in urbanizing Africa and considers the role that shared facilities can play in this equation. It analyses current definitions and classifications used by the United Nations Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) to monitor access to shared sanitation and summarizes the recent discourse on JMP's limitations. Empirical evidence from two case studies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) - Kampala, Uganda and Ashaiman, Ghana - is presented, showing the widespread use and limitations of the shared toilet facilities in these two cities. The empirical evidence shows that quite different types of shared sanitation facilities emerge in different cities, each influenced by the urbanization patterns, local politics and socio-cultural considerations. Improving the quality of shared facilities involves the consideration of the applicability of the different types of facilities within the category 'shared sanitation', together with an improved understanding of the users' determinants of acceptability, such as access and cleanliness. The paper concludes with a discussion of potential indicators for shared sanitation post-2015 global monitoring, as a means of integrating shared sanitation into the overall sanitation access figures.</p