ISSER puts Ghana's yearly sanitation toll above GH₵6.2bn, urges bigger spending

Pinned summary · as of 01:22

A policy brief from February 2026 by University of Ghana researchers at ISSER, its social and economic research institute, says inadequate waste management and sanitation drain Ghana of over GH₵6.2 billion annually. The sum combines hospital costs with output lost when people fall ill, and the brief wants public investment raised sharply.

What we know

• ISSER's brief says the yearly cost of poor waste handling and sanitation to Ghana exceeds GH₵6.2 billion, made up of healthcare spending and lost productivity.
• Of that total, ISSER attributes about GH₵5.58 billion to medical bills paid directly and about GH₵650 million to lost productivity.
• The brief says all the country's metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies together spent roughly GH₵180.2 million on waste and sanitation.
• ISSER estimates that illnesses tied to poor sanitation account for around 31.9 million lost working and school days a year and contribute to 107,222 premature deaths annually. It names malaria, cholera and typhoid among the preventable diseases behind the burden.
• The researchers put current average spending at GH₵38.78 for each tonne of waste, against a best-case benchmark of GH₵1,028 per tonne drawn from lower-middle-income countries.
• ISSER links the growing problem to fast urban growth, rising population and changing consumption habits that produce more solid and liquid waste, and says many assemblies lack the capacity to cope.
• ISSER recommends a big rise in state funding for sanitation, drains and environmental health. It wants safe handling of faecal sludge and the clearing of open refuse dumps to come first, with capital aimed at high-risk urban and peri-urban areas such as crowded informal settlements and flood-prone neighbourhoods.
• ISSER also argues that sanitation deserves to be seen as a strategic investment in the economy, since inaction costs more than acting. It wants the health and economic gains written into budgets and medium-term expenditure frameworks.

Why it matters for Ghana

Households in crowded and flood-prone parts of Accra, Kumasi and other cities carry much of the burden, through medical bills, days of work missed and children kept out of school. The gap between what assemblies spend and what illness costs frames a budget choice for national and local government: prevention or treatment. ISSER's recommendations, if adopted, would shape how drains, refuse dumps and sludge disposal are funded in the towns where cholera and typhoid keep returning.