Toilets for tenants: a cooperative approach to sanitation bye-law enforcement in Ga West, Accra

Many cities have bye-laws that require landlords to provide acceptable sanitation for tenants. Yet landlords fail to provide these facilities and the bye-laws are seldom enforced. This paper provides evidence from low-income urban communities in the Ga West Municipality of Accra, Ghana on the barriers to both toilet provision and bye-law enforcement, drawing on household surveys with landlords and tenants, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. The key constraints to household toilet construction were found to be the lack of capital, limited space, and availability of nearby public toilets. Barriers to bye-law enforcement included the lack of both financial resources and incentives for the regulator. A simple negotiation game involving landlords, tenants and the regulator was organized, and the agreements reached were used to design a cooperative approach to bye-law enforcement for toilet construction.