Sanitation

Sanitation facilities in the municipality though inadequate are crude dumping of liquid waste, refuse dumping, septic tank latrines, KVIPS, W/Cs and few pan latrines.

There is no final waste disposal site for liquid waste in the municipality.  Liquid waste is therefore, transported in cesspool emptier to a lagoon in Accra.  The Assembly has one cesspool emptier which conveys the wastes from the 12 withholding tanks.  The Assembly currently has been using a site at Adipa in the municipality as a final waste disposal site for solid waste. There are two refuse trucks, one cesspool emptier, and a refuse tractor.  There are 47 community public toilets in the municipality.  This is made up of one (1) water closet, Twenty-one (21)-aqua privy, Four (4) VBT, Eleven (11) KVIP and Two (2) Pit latrines.

Sanitation issues, which are of critical concern in the municipality, include: Lack of solid and liquid waste disposal Sites, Inadequate public places of convenience, Domestic refuse disposal site, Lack of modern slaughter houses – Adoagyiri, Nsawam, Non pounding of animals and Inadequate manpower at the Environmental Health Section.

In the area of household toilets and public latrines, the proportion is 41 percent and 59 percent respectively, therefore there is urgent need to encourage house owners to construct household latrines, as pubic ones are difficult to maintain.

On refuse disposal, 95 percent of the population relies on crude dumping to dispose of their household refuse.  The practice has resulted in huge mountains of refuse dumps in the communities, some as close as 10 meters to the nearest dwelling houses.

There is only one slaughterhouse in the municipality located at Djankrom – Nsawam which is in a deplorable state.  This is however located in the middle of the community which proves to be a nuisance to the inhabitants.  The need to relocate the slaughter-house to a more convenient place has necessitated the allocation of piece of land at Akwamu in Nsawam; where a new modernized slaughter-house will be constructed.

In addition to the public toilets, the municipality has through DANIDA constructed 31 institutional latrines and 362 household latrines under the community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA). This is the staring picture confronting the municipality as far as sanitation is concerned. The Municipal Assembly is considering tackling this situation head-on by increasing the budgetary allocation of its developmental budget to work in this sector.