POTABLE WATER ACCESSIBILITY AND ITS IMPACT ON GIRL CHILD EDUCATION IN WA MUNICIPALITY, GHANA

Abstract

Water is an important commodity in our daily lives. Without it all activities be it social or economic will not be possible. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of portable water accessibility and how it affects girl child education in the Wa Municipality of the Upper west Region of Ghana. Accessibility of potable water in developing countries including Ghana is predominantly the work of the girl child as it is the gender role of girls. Most girls in developing countries spend lots of time in search for and collect tap water to their homes for domestic use and sometimes for commercial use at the expense of education. In conducting this study, both qualitative and quantitative (mixed) methods of data collection were employed. Tools such as questionnaires, focus group discussions guides and interview guides were employed in collecting data for the study. The study revealed that 2.7 percent of the people in the study area had portable water in their household while the remaining 97.3% accessed portable water outside their households. It was revealed that girls walked long distance in search for water and some of them spent a lot of time at the water sources to access water. The study also revealed that girls reported to school very late and some just refused to go for the fear that their teacher will punish them for reporting late to school. The study further revealed that the performance of the girl child is very poor as compared to their boy counterparts in almost all the schools selected for the study. The study came out with the recommendations that, the Ghana Water Company should increase the number of stand pipes in almost all the areas of the study. Also, parents should be educated on the importance of girl child education. Household head are encouraged to connect pipe born water into their households.