Ghana: Observations from data collection in a village

This is a report written as an insider (member of the WASHCost team) and outsider (as someone not part of the data-collection team). I was more than happy to join the field team on their visit to villages near Dedesua town in Bosomtwe District, from 20th-25th February 2010. I had time to interact and ask questions I would not have asked in a meeting.

The District Water and Sanitation Team / Board (DWST/B) gives contact persons at each village and supports the WASHCost field team members with enumerators to assist in their research. In the village, the team goes to see the Chief and other opinion leaders and meets the water and sanitation (WATSAN) members to ask them for their support and involvement in household surveys.

Research set-up

The team is divided into 3 smaller teams, a research officer, research assistant and one enumerator (adding up to 9). A tenth person, a field research assistant, with the help of one WATSAN member, maps point sources, water bodies, toilet facilities (household and communal), schools, roads, churches, and other key points. Opinion leaders alert people to the presence of the team and households make preparations to receive and welcome them.

Approximately 20-40 household questionnaires are administered a day with GPS points and photographs. Over two days this adds up to about 80 questionnaires in each community.

Dedesua community

In Dedesua community the WASHCost Ghana documentalist (DCO) joined one typical field team to observe how a usual household survey is conducted.

The village has a population of about 1,000 people. The spring Kaakaawere is well kept and is in a nice cool environment with much trees and greens. Community members are responsible for cleaning the environs and re-digging the spring to make room for more water. The spring is nicely cemented where people draw water. The taste according to them is better than at the point source because it is cooler without any smell and very natural. There is no outbreak of disease. The point source has a smell of rust when you drink it. Occasionally they buy cool sachet water once a while in the afternoons when the sun is very hot. Some suggested that the spring was seen as a protector of the community hence they should not disown it at the advent of a new man made system. Some said they have made it part of their life.

The team greeted 4 people sitting at leisure in front of their house and informed them of their visit. I was pleased to hear people say that the community has enough water and point sources. Their main concern now, and what they would like the government of Ghana to support them with, is the communal toilet for men and women.

In this house live 3 families of married sisters. The main interviewee, who is 33 years of age, lives there with her husband and 2 children and is expecting another. In all 15 persons live there, sharing bathroom, kitchen, household cleaning, food and water. This household was relatively poor from the look of the housing and environs. The housing structure, latrine and general look was worn out and lacked maintenance, the children in the house seem malnourished.

"Spring water tastes better"

“If I have to cook sometimes but I do not have money, I am catered for. I have been eating from the pocket of my bigger sister who farms. We fetch water from the nearby point source and from the community traditional spring, ‘Kaakaawere’. The point source is quite new not even close to a year, and we fetch from there because it is relatively closer; that is what the children who fetch the water say. Two containers of any size costs five Ghana pesewas. The local spring Kaakaawere supports us most of the time (except) Tuesday when it is being cleaned. We do all sorts of domestic activities with water from point source and from the stream. I prefer to drink the Kaakaawere to the point source because it tastes better. We do not have enough storage and we do not store water at all in rainy seasons.

“There is no communal toilet for we women. I know they are now building another one for the community but we all defecate in the bush and on the community refuse dump. There are sites for men, women and children.” I asked: “Would they be willing to pay for use of a communal toilet?” The response was, “We still lack communal latrine and I would be more than willing to pay to attend for use of communal latrine.” There has been an earlier collection of monies said to be used to build a communal latrine for men and women in the village; yet to date it has not been completed.

Observations from the field:

• It was great to see how the team is able to capture as much as they can information from household based on the questionnaire. They do not prompt but listen to the household and answers to the questionnaire
• I was impressed how team vets responses at the end of the day to cross check if answers ticked were correct and to make amends where necessary.
• Because of time, questions were sometimes asked hurriedly, with no further probing after the answer has been given. The focus was on completing the household surveys.
• The research team cannot make stories from the field in addition to collecting data. The team welcomed the presence of the DCO and recommended she joins other field visits.

Some field challenges:

• Some local community or village members run upon the seeing WASHCost team members thinking that they are Town Council ‘tankas’, who fine village households for not keeping a clean environment. In Dedesua, local people thought the field team were ‘tankas’ and some started cleaning their houses while others were on the run.
• Capturing pictures and videos sometimes becomes a challenge as people tend to think they might be reported for illegal things. At Pease, a local liquor (akpeteshie) seller upon seeing the team in discussion with his workmen became peeved, thinking that his workmen had betrayed him to government officials.

The chief of Dedesua and Adwafor urged the team that at the end of the day, reports and finding from the village should be shared with the community to see where they can make amends.

Michele Adjei-Fah, February 2010