Sustaining point-of-use (POU) water quality interventions in Ghana: the behavioural perspective

In Ghana, diarrhoeal diseases continue to be a major cause of under-five morbidity and mortality, mainly due to faecally-contaminated household water and unhygienic practices. Although the West Africa Water Initiative (WAWI) partnership has attained remarkable success in drilling boreholes and providing alternative improved water sources in intervention communities in the Northern Region, promoting household water treatment and safe storage products and technologies alongside is a cost effective alternative to reducing diarrhoeal and other water-related diseases. This paper outlines the behaviour change perspective for implementing household safe water treatment and storage technologies, based on a literature review. The review highlights the health benefits of point-of-use water products, sources of water supply in WAWI intervention communities, current water treatment and storage practices, the facilitating factors and obstacles to behaviour change.