Aims
To build towards improved enforcement of municipal regulations that require landlords in Ghanaian cities to provide acceptable sanitation facilities for tenants, and to increase market demand for sanitation services (toilet construction, septic tank emptying).
Findings
Nearly half of landlords are unaware of the existence of such by-laws. Most tenants (93%) who are aware of the by-law have not lodged any complaint with the relevant authority (the Environmental Health & Sanitation Department), for fear of eviction.
The key barriers to the construction of household and compound toilets in Ghana are lack of capital, limited land space, and the wide availability of public toilets. Ga West Municipal Authority (the regulator) reports a number of critical bottlenecks to enforcement, including a lack of financial resources and incentives.
Next steps
The Government of Ghana is committed to ensuring that every household in Ghana will be able to access their own toilet (‘one house, one toilet’). The sanitation by-laws are now being enforced more systematically, but this may not lead to more household toilets being constructed if the other barriers (such as high usage of public toilets or high costs of materials) are not tackled.
Read more
- Blog: April 2017 – Between carrot and stick: A co-operative approach to enforcing sanitation by-laws in Ghana
- Policy Brief: April 2017 – Smart enforcement of sanitation by-laws in Ghana
- Journal article (Environment & Urbanisation): October 2018 – Toilets for tenants: a cooperative approach to sanitation bye-law enforcement in Ga West, Accra