Ill health unleashed? Cities and municipal services in Ghana

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Periodical article

Title:	Ill health unleashed? Cities and municipal services in Ghana
Author:	Obeng-Odoom, Franklin
Year:	2011
Periodical:	Review of African Political Economy (ISSN 0305-6244)
Volume:	38
Issue:	127
Pages:	43-60
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Ghana
Subjects:	water supply sanitation drinking water public health urban areas waste management
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056244.2011.552568
Abstract:	Increasing urbanization, wealth and ill health in cities necessitate careful study, especially in African cities whose development is widely regarded as rapid and chaotic. Using Ghanaian cities as a case study, this article analyses some of the important sources of ill health, identifies why they persist, and assesses how they impinge on economic growth, redistribution, and poverty reduction. Specifically, it examines how water and sanitation services are provided and how the mode and level of service delivery, in turn, impact on urban health and wealth. It argues that, although there is considerable evidence that policy change is urgently needed, the tensions and contradictions between economic and social efficiency, intermeshed with vested political interests, are likely to impede significant changes to the status quo. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]