According to the Ghana Statistical Service’s (GSS) 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) General Report on Water and Sanitation, one in every four households (27.7%) in urban areas did not have their main source of drinking water on their premises.

This figure, the GSS says, represents 1.4 million urban households without access to water on their premises. Out of this number, 89,922 households had to travel more than 30 minutes to make a round trip to get to their main source of drinking water and return.

The data was highlighted in commemoration of World Cities Day which is observed annually on 31st October to end the observance of Urban October which was instituted to raise awareness of the challenges facing urban areas.

World Cities Day is to raise awareness about global urbanisation and push for global cooperation in sustainable urban development.

According to the GSS, across the country, 112,031 households in urban areas were using unimproved sources of drinking water.

Unimproved sources of drinking water refer to water sources not adequately protected from outside contamination.

Meanwhile, the situation is most acute in the North East Region where one in every four (24.0%) of urban households were found using unimproved sources of drinking water.

The North East recorded the “highest percentage and was over ten times the national urban average (2.2%).”

“The Northern (10.0%) and Savannah (9.3%) regions distantly recorded the next highest percentages of households using unimproved sources in urban areas,” it added.