Household water treatment and safe storage options for Northern Region Ghana : consumer preference and relative cost

A range of household water treatment and safe storage (HWTS) products are available in Northern Region Ghana which have the potential to significantly improve local drinking water quality. However, to date, the region has failed to see significant HWTS product adoption and sustained use. Therefore, this consumer preference study was conducted to give HWTS implementing organizations a method and tool to help stimulate product uptake by tailoring water quality interventions to local preferences and needs. Ultimately, this work highlights a discrete set of HWTS products most likely to have the greatest impact on local drinking water quality, based on product effectiveness, adoption and sustained use. The research methodology included a consumer preference survey and water quality testing in 237 households in four rural and three urban communities around Tamale, Ghana in January 2008. Turbidity testing and total coliforms (TC) and Escherichia coli (E.coli) removal were used to assess source water quality. The research confirmed that local purchasing decisions are dominated by a desire for products that offer a major health improvement and have a traditional durable product look, with relatively less importance placed on water taste and look, treatment time and price. The data was used to generate baseline consumer profiles based on a combination of demographic characteristics, source water quality, HWTS product preferences, ability to pay, and purchasing behavior. The consumer profiles reveal that a traditional durable product such as Pure Home Water's Kosim ceramic pot filter is a good fit for communities with turbid source water; however, a portfolio HWTS approach will be required to meet the diverse needs of the northern Ghana population.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Green, Vanessa (Vanessa Layton)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Susan E. Murcott.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/43903

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/43903