A survey conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service revealed that 84 per cent of the household population in the country has access to at least basic drinking water services.

Basic water service includes drinking water from an improved source, either on the premises or with a round-trip collection time of less than 30 minutes.

The survey showed that 95 per cent of the urban household population has access to at least

basic drinking water services, compared to 72 per cent of the rural household population.

Dr Odei Gyebi, Acting Director, Demography, GSS, said this at the dissemination of a report dubbed ‘The 2022 Demographic and Health Survey.’

The survey revealed that overall 81 per cent of the household population had sufficient quantities of drinking water in the month prior to the survey.

By region, the availability of sufficient quantities of drinking water is lowest in the Northern region with 68 per cent and highest in the Upper East and Ashanti regions with 86 per cent.

On sanitation, the surve
y revealed that nearly 24 per cent of Ghanaians have access to at least basic sanitation services.

This means that they use improved facilities that are not shared with other households or have safely managed sanitation services where excreta are disposed of in situ or transported and treated off-site.

Also, a quarter of the population practices open defecation, including 39 per cent in rural areas.

Dr Wilfred Ochan, Country Representative, United Nations Population Fund, said access to data was essential in the policy formulation process for addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) on WASH.

He said the current data by the GSS indicated that Ghana was progressing steadily in attainment of SDG six on ensuring access to water and sanitation for all, but it was imperative for policymakers to interrogate the challenges.

Mr Ochan called for the inclusion of artificial intelligence and digital innovation to analyse the data from the GSS.

Mr Ramesh Bhusah, Chief United Nations Children Fund WASH Chie
f, said the data would facilitate transparency and accountability in implementing policies to address the challenges in the sector.

Mr Fifi Boadi, representative from the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, expressed concern about the open defecation statistics as 25 percent of the population in the country practices open defecation.

He said the Ministry would interrogate the survey to come up with the necessary policies to address the problems.

The Survey is the 7th report conducted in the country since 1988, designed to provide data for monitoring the population and health situation in the country.

The Survey was conducted by the GSS with funding from USAID, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank, the Global Fund, KOICA, World Health Organisation, and the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office.

A nationally representative sample of 15,014 women age 15-49 in 17,933 households and 7,044 men age 15-49 in half of the selected households were interviewed.

The Survey represents a response rate of 98 per c
ent of women and 97 per cent of men.

Source: Ghana News Agency