Risk Perceptions of Wastewater use for Urban Agriculture in Accra, Ghana

This paper draws on SHARE PhD Student Prince Antwi-Agyei's PhD study into wastewater use in urban agriculture. This study sought to assess the knowledge and awareness of wastewater use for crop production, its related health risks, and adoption of health protective measures by farmers, market salespersons and consumers using questionnaires and focus group discussions. It found that awareness of the source of irrigation water was low among consumers and street food vendors, though higher among market vendors. In contrast, health risk awareness was generally high among salespersons and consumers, but low among farmers. It also found that consumers did not prioritize health indicators when buying produce from vendors but were motivated to buy produce, or prepared food based on taste, friendship, cost, convenience and freshness of produce. Similarly, farmers’ awareness of health risk did not influence their adoption of safer farm practices. The study recommends the promotion of interventions that would result in more direct benefits to both producers and vendors, together with hygiene education and enforcement of food safety byelaws in order to influence behaviour change, and increase the uptake of the multiple-barrier approach