FACTORS INFLUENCING OPEN DEFECATION AMONG SLUM DWELLERS IN ASHAIMAN MUNICIPALITY

ABSTRACT

Background

Open Defecation remains a very big health and environmental hazard in many developing countries in Africa. About 2.4 billion people globally still lack access to improved sanitation and about 946 million practice open defecation, meanwhile in Ghana 27% of the Ghanaians engage in open defecation due to lack of latrines and many share sanitation facilities leading to prevalence of diseases related to sanitation such as diarrhea, literature reflects gaps in. This study therefore sought to explore the factors that influence open defecation among slum dwellers in Ashaiman Municipality.

Method

A descriptive cross sectional study design was used for the study. Ashaiman Municipality was purposively selected based on the low coverage of latrines at household level and public latrines and it being an urban area with a lot of slum areas. Simple Random Sampling was used to select 5 Enumeration Areas in the slum for the study and these included; Base Health Center, Solidarity International School, Camusco School, Stream of Life School, Allied Oil, God‟s Mercy Academy and Agyiri Nyarko School Complex. Quantitative data will be collected from 281 household heads who will fill the structured questionnaire and qualitative data will be collected through in-depth interview to complement the household survey. All the filled and completed questionnaire were first checked for completeness, coded, entered into SPSS and then cleaned before data analysis. Descriptive findings were presented as numerical summaries, tables, meanwhile inferential statistics was made use of Chi-square and binary logistics regression and correlation were used to measure the relationship between the dependent and independent variables and thematic analysis was carried for the qualitative part of the study.

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measure the relationship between the dependent and independent variables and thematic analysis was carried for the qualitative part of the study.

Results

In general the slum dwellers displayed both the use of improved and unimproved latrine usage, however less than half of the slum dwellers practiced open defecation (9.2%). Majority of the slum dwellers either shared latrines among the households (29.7%) or used public latrines (49.8%). There was significant relationship between knowledge on open defecation and the practice of open defecation at (mean difference= -0.168, p= 0.005).

Conclusion

The study revealed that open defecation was higher among households that did not own latrine facilities. Majority of the community household members either used public latrines or used shared latrines among the households. More Government and Landlords efforts needs to be geared towards scaling up latrine ownership and use at households and construction of more public latrines in the study area must be undertaken to end open defecation.