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

using the bush while some said they were not comfortable defecating on another person’s feces when they are not sick. From the survey, high cost of construction of the toilet was indicated by 21.3 percent of the respondents as the reason why they do not have a toilet in their house Again, 30.7 percent of the respondents attributed the reason why they didn’t want to construct toilet as not important for them. A further 14.7 percent of the respondents indicated that lack of technical support is the reason why they do not have toilet facilities in their households. Additionally, 33.3 percent of the respondents indicated that they were waiting for external support as a reason why they do not have toilets in their household as shown in Figure 8. Figure 8: Reasons for not having toilet in the household, Source: Field Survey, 2020 This finding is similar to the finding of Barnard et al., (2013). Their study revealed that 72% of households had toilet which was increased by 10% when compared with control villages in India. According to Barnard et al. (2013), the main reasons for households not using toilet was that they prefer open defecation (29%). Also 20% said the toilets were inconvenient to them because of its smell, 23% said the toilets lack privacy, 17% said their toilets were blocked and 22% of the respondents use their toilets for storage purposes. The survey looked at the availability of hand washing facilities and it was revealed that 73.4 percent of the respondents have hand washing facility for household members to wash their hands after defecating. The survey revealed that 62.2 percent of the respondents had hand washing facilities with soap for people who use their toilets to wash their hands. This implies that people will be protected from carrying diseases from their toilets to their food or for further transmission to other people in the community. i) Source of Water for Households The source of water for household is always a concern in the Mion district. The study showed that, most (31.5%) of respondents depend on dugouts for water, 22.2 percent of the respondents depend on river as a source of water for the household, 26.7 percent of the respondents depend on boreholes as source of water for the household, and 19.6 percent of the respondents depend on well as a source water for their household as shown in figure 7 below. 48, 21.3% 69, 30.7% 33, 14.7% 75, 33.3% High Cost Not important No technical support Need external support 1 Year 2022 37 © 2022 Global Journals Global Journal of Science Frontier Research Volume XXII Issue ersion I VI ( H ) Assessing the Determinants of Open Defecation Free Communities b ased on the Socio-Demographic and Economic Status of Household Heads in the Mion District of Northern Region, Ghana