An Ethnographic Study of Sanitation and Defecatory Practices in Peri-Urban Communities: The Case of Prampram in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana

Abstract

This study sought to interrogate factors leading to the low patronage of improved sanitation facilities in peri-urban settings. The study’s main emphasis was on the Prampram community located in the Ningo-Prampram District of the Greater Accra Region in Ghana. A recent study by the Joint Monitoring Programme for water and sanitation (JMP) shows that, in Ghana, only 14% of the people have access to improved sanitation or decent toilet facilities. Ghana was graded 48th among 51 African countries in terms of meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MGD) target 7, which aimed at increasing (by half) the number of people who have access to improved sanitation by 2015. The study, therefore, interrogated issues in relation to socio-cultural practices, socio-economic lives of the various groups as well as their hygiene and sanitation practices that inform the people’s preferences for household toilets and how this translates into their uptake of sanitation. The study adopted an ethnographic approach and drew on data collected over a period of eight months to understand perceptions and preferences for various sanitation options in the Prampram community. The field work involved participant observation, informal conversation, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The study concluded that dirt, sanitation or hygiene can only be operationalized within a social context. It was observed that the study community’s perception of dirt as “matter out of place” as defined by Mary Douglas; their perceptions of smell and contagion; their concept of public and private spaces; and the socialization process that children go through contribute to their hygiene behaviours and sanitation practices.