Environmental planning crisis in urban Ghana: Local responses to nature's call

Abstract

Worldwide, there is increasing acknowledgement of the dangers of improper human waste management, particularly open defecation, on the environment and human wellbeing. With about 85.7% of Ghana's population without access to decent toilet facilities as of 2017, Ghana ranks highly in the world among countries with poor human waste management practices. Focusing on urban Ghana, the purpose of this article is twofold: first, to analyze the social, economic, institutional and cultural factors inhibiting the provision of household toilet facility in urban Ghana; and second, to assess how urban residents are coping with the absence of in-house toilet facilities, and the urban planning implications..