This paper describes a research on the application of
commercial marketing approach to sanitation. The research
project is being conducted in Nkawie/Toase, a small
town in Ghana by WEDC; LSHTM, and TREND (a local
NGO based in Kumasi, Ghana) in collaboration with the
Atwima District Assembly. The research is still on going;
therefore this paper presents the process that is being
implemented and some of the results

Alhassan J. Kanu (7230026)

Amaka E.U. Obika (7230020)

Joseph Boateng (7230023)

Oliver Frimpong (7230029)

English

Loughborough University Institutional Repository

OBIKA, BOATENG, KANU and FRIMPONG4829th WEDC International Conference Abuja, Nigeria, 2003TOWARDS THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALSMarketing of household toilets in GhanaAmaka E.U Obika1, Joseph Boateng2, Alhassan Kanu2, and Oliver Frimpong2, WEDCDIARRHOEA DISEASES ARE said to account for the deaths ofover 2.4 million people every year making it the thirdlargest cause of death among children in the middle andlow-income countries, (WHO 1999). The principle causeof diarrhoea is other people’s excreta, much of which canbe prevented through good sanitation, hygiene and watersupply, (Cairncross 1999). Apart from the health implica-tions of inadequate sanitation, sanitation is also importantfor other reasons. These include the need for privacyespecially for women, and safety issues related to walkingto public toilets or open defecation sites in the night. It hasbeen suggested that sanitation is a human rights issue fromthe perspective of the dignity of having access to a latrine.Sanitation has always been given lesser priority thanwater supply. More recently, sanitation is beginning tomore global attention. This is evident from the MillenniumDevelopment goals; Declarations of the World Summit onSustainable Development; and the Africasan conference,all of which aims to halve by the year 2015, the proportionof people without access to basic sanitation.Despite the gains made in increasing sanitation coverageduring the water and sanitation decade of the 1980s, over 313million people (46 million in urban and 267 million in ruralareas) mainly resident in low-income areas in Africa still lackadequate sanitation facilities (WHO and UNICEF, 2000).To achieve the goals set for sanitation, at least 3.8millionpeople in urban areas and 22.3 million people in the ruralareas need to be provided with adequate sanitation yearly.Donor-supported sanitation programmes have failed toproduce impressive results in terms of increased levels ofuptake and coverage. This is mainly due to the fact thatmost sanitation programmes have commonly been con-cerned with the supply of latrines and education materialsrather than with satisfying a ‘demand’ from the targetpopulation.The relatively poor uptake of sanitation facilities espe-cially among poor urban residents has highlighted the needfor new sustainable strategies for promoting latrines. Thestrategy should be sustainable and should therefore not bedependent of latrine construction subsidies.This paper describes a research on the application ofcommercial marketing approach to sanitation. The re-search project is being conducted in Nkawie/Toase, a smalltown in Ghana by WEDC; LSHTM, and TREND (a localNGO based in Kumasi, Ghana) in collaboration with theAtwima District Assembly. The research is still on going;therefore this paper presents the process that is beingimplemented and some of the results.MethodologyThe purpose of the research is to enhance the ability of keystakeholder agencies to plan and manage social marketingprogrammes for household toilets in low-income commu-nities.The methodology being tested is based on the socialmarketing process in Weinreich, (1999) and is divided into5 main stages.Stage 1: Formative research:This is equivalent to the market research used by commer-cial marketers. In-depth interviews (IDIs) with a sample ofheads of household were conducted in the project areas inorder to understand the motivations and constraints, whichmake people to adopt or not to adopt household toilets. Italso helped to understand users’ perception of existingtoilet facilities (especially the public toilets) and the at-tributes that people desire in a household toilet. In addition,structured survey was also conducted and the result willform the baseline indicators for measuring the impact of themarketing programme on the demand for household toiletin Nkawie-Toase.Stage 2: Message, Materials and humanresources development:The research is working with a local marketing expert todevelop messages and materials based on the result of theformative research and the baseline survey.Stage 3: Pre-testing:The research project is yet to pre-test the marketing plan, asthis will be based on stage 2 above. The project intends topre-test the developed messages and promotion materialsin a close-by town with similar characteristics as theresearch site. The latrine builders will also practice theirnewly acquired skills through the construction of demon-stration toilets and role-playing.Stage 4: Implementation:Implementation will commence when the necessary re-sources are in place in order to achieve a good marketingmix, Product; Price; Place; Promotion.The product is this situation is toilet that will respond tothe desires of the target audience. The research projectintends to promote 4 main types of toilet with some of thefeatures modified to suit the desires of the target audience.In order to this, a number of masons have been selected tounder various capacity building activities in the construc-OBIKA, BOATENG, KANU and FRIMPONG49tion of various types of toilets, small business development/management, and marketing of household toilets. The firsttraining workshop has been completed.The price for the various toilets is yet to be determined.Work is ongoing with the key stakeholders to get at pricesfor building the various toilets and to also develop variouspayment options that clients can choose from. These keystakeholders include traders of latrine construction mate-rials, formal and semi-formal financial institutions such asthe rural bank and the ‘susu’ groups.The place is the location where the target population caneasily access information and assistance about buildinghousehold toilets. The research project intends to establishan information/trade show centres that will provide infor-mation on the 4 types of toilet, contacts for toilet builders,credit facilities and other support services such as desludgingtrucks. Models of the 4 toilets being promoted will also beon display at the information centres.Promotion will be initiated once the messages, materialsand human resources required is developed and pre-tested.The research is working with a local marketing and adver-tising company to plan for the launch of the campaign andpromotion using messages and materials developed earlier.The promotion will aim at attracting people to the informa-tion/trade show centres.Stage 5: Evaluation:Monitoring mechanisms have been put in place for thevarious phases of the research. An evaluation will beconducted at the end of the research period. The baselineindicators will be established from the survey that wasconducted.ResultsThe key results that have come out so far include the keymotivations and constraints that make people to adopt ornot to adopt household toilets obtained from the in-depthinterviews. The motivations for adopting household toiletswere mainly due to the bad conditions and inconvenienceof using the public toilets. These motivations also calleddrives have been grouped into broad categories.Motivations for adopting household toilets:• Health: This broader category was further split into 3sub categories, knowledge of disease transmission, dis-gust reactions and ill health as a result of using thepublic toilets.• Privacy/Embarrassment: These two motives weregrouped as one broad category because privacy issuessuch exposure in the public toilets, and being seenqueuing in front of the toilets often cause embarrass-ment to people. Use of ‘chamber pots’ by adults espe-cially in the night inside the houses causes embarrass-ment.• Smell/Dirt: This is associated with the poor ventilation,strong smell and presence of used paper and faces in thepublic toilets. Smell has also been associated withtraditional household pit toilets.1. Status/Prestige: Having a household toilet helps toelevate ones status in the town. People with house toiletsoften play key roles in arranging important ceremoniessuch as funerals so that he/she will allow ‘big’ visitorsespecially those from outside the town to use the toiletduring the funeral.2. Safety/Security: This is made up of issues associatedwith unsafe structure of some of the public toilets andtraditional household pit toilets. It also includes secu-rity issues with using the public toilets in the night forfear of being mugged, raped, or attacked by evil spirits.Defecating in the bush was also not considered safebecause of the possibility of bites from insects andreptiles, and irritations caused by some leaves.3. Economic gain/loss: People believe that time spentgoing to queue at the public toilets could be used foreconomic gains. Having a household toilet will alsosave families the money they pay for using the publictoilet. People loose work and farming hours when theystart off late in the morning.4. Comfort/Convenience: This was one of the most men-tioned motivations for wanting a household toilet. Itincludes issues such as distance to public toilets or thebush,  and inability to use the public toilets or the bushin the night.A total of 577 motivations for household toilets werementioned. Table 1 summarises the motivations.Constraints in the adoption of household toilets:The constraining factors for adopting household toiletswere also grouped into 9 broad categories. They include:1. Operation and performance of existing household toi-lets: People are not satisfied with the existing householdtoilets in Nkawie/Toase for various reasons, includingTable 1. Motivations for household toilets Motivation No. of times mentioned % Health   Disgust reaction to conditions of public toilets 24 4.2 Knowledge of disease transmission 57 9.9 Adverse health reaction to public toilets 22 3.8 Privacy/Embarrassment 99 17.2 Smell/Dirt 75 13.00 Status/Prestige 66 11.4 Safety/Security 66 11.4 Economic gain 11 1.9 Economic loss 57 9.9 Comfort/Convenience 100 17.3 OBIKA, BOATENG, KANU and FRIMPONG50high operational cost (e.g. WC), inability to empty pitwhen full (e.g. pit toilet including VIPs), problems withsmell, insects and rodents amongst others. Operationand performance ranked highest in the list of constrain-ing factors.2. Cost/finance: There is no standardised price for thevarious toilets but the general belief is that householdtoilets are expensive. The quoted prices vary fromC2million (£143) for pit toilets to C6million (£429) forwater closets. These prices are above what an averagehousehold can afford to pay. Many of the peopleinterviewed mentioned lack of finance as a constrainingfactor for obtaining household toilets.3. Competing priorities: Due to poor earnings, manyhousehold spend their income on immediate needs suchas feeding, paying school fees, hospital bills and aretherefore unable to save for home improvement such astoilets.Table 2 summarises the constraining factors for non-adoption of household toilets.Attributes desired in household toiletThe main features that many people would like in ahousehold toilet include:• Easy to flush away faeces (faeces not visible)• No smell and good ventilation• Low construction cost• Little or not dependent on water• Easy access for emptying• Easily used by children• Possibility of seating• Easy to clean• Easy to use water for anal cleansingThe existing public toilets and many of the householdtoilets do not have any of the above-mentioned attributes.Discussions and conclusionThe research project has developed a marketing strategybased on the result of the formative research. The‘motivations’ for Hh toilets are being used in the develop-ment of promotional messages and materials while workhas commenced with key stakeholders especially toiletbuilders to reduce the constraining factors.A start-up workshop with the latrine builders highlightedthe areas that need to be strengthened to enable them toprovide better services to their clients. Work has also begunwith locally based financial institutions to improve accessto credit facilities for the construction of household toilets.The result so far has indicated that marketing sanitationis not only about promotion and advertising but alsoensuring that all the marketing mix is in place. Marketingtoilets is about:• Understanding what the target audience desire in atoilet.• Offering them toilets that satisfy the desire at prices thatvarious groups can afford.• Ensuring that there is a place where they can getinformation on the toilets and contacts of builders• Sending out information to the target audience.ReferencesWorld Health Organisation 1999, The World Health Re-port, Making a Difference. WHO, Geneva Switzerland.Cairncross, S. 1999, Why Promote Sanitation, WELLTechnical Brief, (online), Available:http:/www.lboro.ac.uk/well/services/tecbriefs/sanitat.htm.WHO and UNICEF 2000, Global Water Supply andSanitation Assessment 2000 Report, WHO, Geneva,Switzerland and UNICEF, New York.List of abbreviations:WEDC: Water Engineering and Development Centre,Loughborough University.LSHTM: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medi-cine, University of London.1.AMAKA E.U. OBIKA is an Assistant Programme Man-ager with WEDC2.JOSEPH BOATENG is a Sanitary Engineer working withTREND Kumasi, Ghana3.OLIVER FRIMPONG is Community Development Of-ficer working with the TREND Group.4.ALHASSAN JOSEPH KANU is a Planner working withthe TREND Group.Table 2. Constraints for non-adoptionof household toilets Constraints No of responses% Operation/performance of existing household toilets 56 36.1 Cost/finance 45 29.0 Competing priorities 15 9.7 Lack of awareness 11 7.1 Construction difficulties 8 5.2 Decision making dynamics in large extended families 8 5.2 Satisfaction with the public toilets 5 3.2 Lack of space  4 2.6 Difficulty in getting building permit 3 1.9 

Marketing of household toilets in Ghana

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Marketing of household toilets in Ghana

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