67.5 per cent of healthcare facilities in Ghana do not have functional waste collection containers for segregating waste at all waste generation points.
The survey conducted by world vision in the upper east and Oti regions also showed that about 47.7 per cent of the sampled healthcare facilities do not have sufficient number of improved toilet facilities.
The study was conducted in 6 high bilharzia endemic districts in the Oti and Upper East regions and aims to achieve basic water, sanitation and hygiene access, understand the WASH challenges, assess the quality of water from water facilities and to develop an implementation plan to address WASH gaps identified in all healthcare facilities and communities.
The study focused on all healthcare facilities in Builsa South, Kassena Nankana East and West, Krachi East and West and Nkwanta South.
In all a total of 197 healthcare facilities were sampled including 164 CHPs compounds, 27 health centres and 6 hospitals.
On access to water, 22.3 percent of the facilities across the 6 districts do not have improved water source accessible while about 26 per cent lack quality of water at all points, exposing them to the risk of contamination.
About 47.7 per cent of the facilities do not have sufficient number of improved toilet facilities while 67.5 per cent of them do not have functional waste collection containers for segregating waste, at all waste generation points.
Additionally, about 71 per cent of the surveyed facilities lacked access to hand hygiene stations at all points of care.
Among the recommendation is an increased advocacy to ensure that all new healthcare facilities come with auxiliary wash facilities.
