Environmental sanitation behaviours and attitudes of residents in Birim central municipality

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore environmental sanitation behaviours and attitudes of residents of Birim Central Municipality. Specifically, the study aimed at exploring the determinants of poor environmental sanitation, attitudes and behaviours of residents vis-à-vis sanitation, effectiveness of sanitation interventions likewise effects of poor environmental sanitation on residents in the Municipality. The study was descriptive in nature. It adopted the case study design, and the qualitative approach to inquiry was solely employed in the treatment of data. Interviews and field observations were the main data collection techniques used to obtain responses from twenty-two (22) participants who were purposively sampled. Data gathered were thematically analysed. The study identified six major determinants of poor environmental sanitation: poor enforcement of sanitation laws, attitudes and behaviours, population, cost, logistics and education. Three indicators summed up residents’ attitudes towards environmental sanitation: littering, sanitation laws and indifferent attitudes. Eight sanitation intervention protocols (monitoring, community commitment, public education, stakeholders’ collaboration, solid waste containers, sanitation management, dump site demarcation, drainage and sewage interventions, and bye laws) by municipal assembly were identified, some of which were found out as being considerably effective. Financial expenditure, loss of productive hours and health were realized as key adverse effects of poor environmental sanitation in the Birim Central Municipality. This thesis recommends a change in the attitudes and behaviours of residents, public education, intensification of stakeholder engagement, provision of enough waste containers and refuse receptacles, provision of permanent land-fill sites, periodic clean-up exercise, regular waste collection by public and private waste managers such as the Zoom Lion Company Ghana Limited.