Sanitation and Solid Waste Management Practices Among Compounds in South Dayi District Ghana

Abstract Background South Dayi District, Volta Region, Ghana, lacked a systematic, geo-referenced, community-level dataset on household sanitation and solid waste management practices sufficient to guide the preparation of its District Environmental Sanitation Strategy and Action Plan (DESSAP). This study presents findings from a baseline environmental sanitation survey undertaken to address this gap. Methods A cross-sectional survey was administered using the KoboCollect mobile data collection platform across a defined set of communities in South Dayi District. Data were collected at the level of the house or compound, with the landlord or a designated representative reporting on behalf of the compound, including in cases of multiple resident households. The instrument covered solid waste management, excreta and liquid waste management, stormwater drainage, and environmental sanitation education. Following a structured data cleaning process, analysis was based on 1,806 valid compound-level records. Results Applying the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme sanitation ladder, 45.8% of compounds achieved Basic service level, 32.9% were classified as Limited, 15.9% practised open defecation, and 4.3% relied on unimproved facilities; no compound met the Safely Managed criteria. Open defecation was geographically concentrated, ranging from under 2% in some communities to 51.8% in Tsatee and 30.4% in Adzokoe. Solid waste disposal was dominated by uncontrolled burning (57.7%), with formal collection reaching only 2.1% of compounds despite 36.9% of respondents expressing willingness to pay for improved collection, against only 3.2% currently paying. The majority of household greywater (57.2% combined open ground and no-system disposal) was managed without engineered drainage. Exposure to hygiene education was high (88.1%), and access to piped drinking water was widespread (89.5%). Conclusions Environmental sanitation conditions in the surveyed communities of South Dayi District fall below national policy targets, with open defecation concentrated in specific localities and solid waste management characterised by an infrastructure gap rather than a lack of demand for services. These findings provide an evidence base to inform the geographic targeting, financing strategy, and implementation priorities of the District's Environmental Sanitation Strategy and Action Plan, while underscoring the need to complete data collection across the District and to address identified data collection instrument issues in future survey rounds.