Three in every four (74.7%) households in Ghana do not have exclusive use of an improved toilet facility
Three in every four (74.7%) households in Ghana did not have exclusive use of an improved toilet facility in 2021. An improved toilet facility is one that hygienically separates human excreta from human contact and exclusive use refers to a toilet facility mainly used by household members only. The 2010 and 2021 Comparative Analysis Report on Sanitation indicates that the percentage of households that did not have exclusive use of an improved toilet facility has decreased from 86.3 percent in 2010.
Nine in every ten (89.4%) households in the Savannah Region did not have exclusive use of an improved toilet facility in 2021, the highest recorded, followed by the Upper East (87.9%) and Northern (87.5%) regions. In all, more than 80.0 percent of households did not have exclusive use of an improved toilet facility in seven regions in 2021, a decrease from 13 regions in 2010.
One in every three (32.5%) households were using improved and shared toilet facilities in 2021, an increase from 28.2 percent in 2010. The use of improved shared toilet facilities was highest in the Savannah (10.2%), Northern (11.6%), and Upper East (13.0%) regions in 2021.
The use of unimproved household toilet facilities in Ghana worsened marginally from 1.2 to 1.5 percent between 2010 and 2021. Upper West Region (5.1%) recorded the highest use of unimproved toilet facilities followed by the Volta (4.1%) and North East (3.5%) regions. The use of unimproved toilet facilities increased between 2010 and 2021 in all regions except the Greater Accra and Northern regions. Upper West Region recorded the highest increase of 4.5 percentage points followed by Volta (3.2 percentage points) and North East (2.7 percentage points).
About a quarter (23.0%) of households were using public toilets, compared to 34.6 percent in 2010. Usage of public toilets in 2021 was highest in the Ahafo (34.5%), Western (29.9%), and Ashanti (29.5%) regions.
The percentage of households that did not have toilet facilities and were practicing open defaecation decreased slightly from 19.3 to 17.7 percent between 2010 and 2021. More than half of households were practicing open defaecation in five regions in 2021 led by the Savannah (68.5%) and Upper East (68.4%) regions where two in every three households practiced open defaecation. The practice of open defaecation increased between 2010 and 2021 in five regions with the largest increase of 2.7 percentage points recorded in the Bono East Region.
World Toilet Day is commemorated annually on 19th November to promote access to proper sanitation for all. The theme for 2023 is‘Accelerating Change’.
Disaggregated data on sanitation from the 2021 PHC can be accessed directly from
the GSS StatsBank. The 2010 and 2021 PHC Comparative Analysis Report on Sanitation can be downloaded fromwww.statsghana.gov.gh.
