Global Journal of Science Frontier Research, H: Environment & Earth Science, Volume 22 Issue 1

Assessing the Determinants of Open Defecation Free Communities based on the Socio- Demographic and Economic Status of Household Heads in the Mion District of Northern Region, Ghana Abdul-Rahaman Issahaku α , Osman Alabira σ & Adam Wahabu ρ Abstract- The study was conducted in twenty open defecation free communities of the Mion District in the Northern Region with the objective of assessing the determinants of open defecation free communities based socio-demographic and economic status of household heads correlational analysis. The study design was mainly quantitative and involved225 respondents. The study found that, 73.4 percent have hand washing facilities for washing their hands after defecating but no soap, 62.2 percent of the respondents indicated had hand washing facilities, water and soap. The correlation analysis shows that there was a relationship between household size and open defecation free communities (p=0.000), age of respondents and open defecation free communities (p=0.000), religion and open defecation free communities (p=0.000) and the presence of water at toilets and open defecation free communities (p=0.017). The relationship between the use of soap and open defecation free communities could not be determined (p=0.050). Eighty- four(21.3%) percent of the respondents indicated that the high cost of constructing toilets was the reason why they had no household toilets. Other factors why toilets were not constructed in homes were lack of technical support (14.7%), waiting for external support (33.3%) and the notion that household toilets were not necessary (30.7%).The study concludes that the determinants of open defecation free communities in the Mion District are age, household size, religion and belief systems, and the presence of water and income of residents. The study recommends that governmental and nongovernmental agencies in water and sanitation must support the aged and the poor to construct household toilets. All agencies supporting water and sanitation must harmonize their activities on community led total sanitation and further education and sensitization is necessary to ensure that communities that attained open defecation free status do not relapse into open defecation. Keywords: climate change, household toilets, open defecation, sanitation, water resources. I. I ntroduction lobally, achieving good sanitation has remained a mirage. Nearly 2.5 billion worldwide have no access to improved sanitation (WHO/UNICEF, 2006; WHO/UNICEF, 2013); 946 engage in open defecation WHO/UNICEF, 2015) and over 780 million have no access to improved drinking water (WHO, 2006). As a result, the United Nations calls for ending open defecation and universal access to adequate and equitable sanitation in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (UN General Assembly, 2015). These have become a challenge in developing countries as over 80 percent of diseases are due to poor sanitation (WHO/UNICEF, 2006) and cause the death of one and a half million death in children under 5-years (WHO/UNICEF, 2013). In Ghana, nearly 28.0 percent of the population has no access to good sanitation (Plan International, Ghana, 2013). Northern Region in Ghana is poor in sanitation. In 2006, it was reported that nearly 73 percent of the population were engaged in open defecation with over two metric tonnes of human excreta generated daily. Most of the inhabitants are farmers and use human excreta to fertilize their farm lands or are disposing away in the open fields (Plan International, Ghana, 2015). This is because; the engineering land field site is only in the regional capital Tamale and most households depend on public toilets. It was therefore important to introduce Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) to improve sanitation in rural districts who have no household toilets to protect them from sanitation related diseases, poverty and death. CLTS was first introduced in Ghana in the towns of Mankessim, Asesewa and Bawjiase in the Central Region in 2006 by the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) and was later supported by Plan International Ghana (Plan International Ghana, 2013) and United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to scale up in 2010. As CLTS gained recognition of success, the Government of Ghana G 1 Year 2022 27 © 2022 Global Journals Global Journal of Science Frontier Research Volume XXII Issue ersion I VI ( H ) Author α : Dry Lands Research Institute, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana. e-mail: irahaman2@uds.edu.gh Author σ : Environmental Health and Sanitation Unit, Regional Coordinating Council, North East Region, Ghana. Author ρ : Environmental Health and Sanitation Unit, Regional Coordinating Council, Savanna Region, Ghana.