COMPARISON AND ADAPTATION OF SOCIAL CHANGE DYNAMICS FOR THE COLLECTIVE ABANDONMENT OF OPEN DEFECATION REPORT Porovnání a adaptace dynamiky sociálních změn vedoucích ke kolektivnímu odklonu od neregulovaného vyměšování mimo určená místa. - Zpráva Water Aid

Sanitation is a basic condition for development. Improved sanitation is important

because it makes human health better, promotes economic and social development

and also helps the environment (Eade and Williams, 1995). The identification of

waste management as integral to sustainable urban development is increasingly

recognized by the international aid and development community (Ali and Saywell,

1996). This is because total sanitation in Africa faces lots of challenges which are

related to the behaviour of the populations both in rural environments as well as

deprived urban settings (peri-urban areas). Examples of the challenges are lack of

infrastructure, indiscriminate disposal of waste water in public places, lack of control

for the collection and treatment of waste and more importantly open defecation. The

effects of open defecation are many. It does not only affect the ground water but

remains one of the essential causes of diseases like bilharzias, tuberculosis and

other respiratory diseases.

The experience of poor nations such as Ghana shows that the physical provision of

services (toilets, KVIPs, refuse disposal containers, etc) alone is not a sufficient precondition for sustainability or improvement of health and well being of people.

Greater attention needs to be focused on elements of behavioral change and

sustainability through user participation in planning, implementation, management

and cost sharing.

WaterAid Ghana, as part of its contribution to attaining total sanitation in West Africa

in general and Ghana in particular, commissioned the present study in order to

identify key strategies and actions that can be adapted for complete and collective

abandonment of open defecation. The study is part of a bigger study covering four

nations: Burkina, Ghana, Mali and Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were:

1. To understand the nature of social dynamics in urban environment

2. To identify the factors of social change of the various ethno linguistics groups

3. To investigate the means of promotion for a collective abandonment of open

defecation

4. To examine the ways and means of promoting hygiene in rural and peri-urban

areas, and,

5. To identify the actions required for the development of communities