Colonial Public Health and Sanitation Policies in the Central Province of the Gold Coast, 1874-1957.

Abstract

The present Central Region of Ghana was the Central Province of the Gold Coast during the colonial period. Cape Coast was the administrative capital of the British Crown Colony from 24th July, 1874 till 1877 when it was moved to Accra. The transfer was made under the pretext that Cape Coast was insanitary, yet all the remaining coastal towns in the colony were faced with same sanitation challenges, without the exemption of Accra. This raises the question, if Cape Coast was insanitary, which policies then were employed to make it reasonably healthy and sanitary? Thus, the main objective of the study is to examine the British colonial government’s public health and sanitation policies in the Central Province of the Gold Coast from 1874 to 1957. The approach to the study is qualitative. The study involved both primary and secondary data. It used a multi-disciplinary approach to demonstrate, describe and narrate the public health and sanitation policies that manifested in the provision and availability of hospital, dispensary and clinic facilities, preventive and curative medicines, vaccination programmes, drainage and sewer systems, public latrines, water supply systems, and well-planned settlements that improved the health and sanitary conditions in the Central Province. The main finding of the study is that the colonial government employed a multi-dimensional and multi-departmental approach in the quest to ensure public health in the Central Province; however, the Gold Coasters financed the cost of the provision of the public health and sanitary facilities. The people of Gold Coast also responded and initiated some of the colonial public health and sanitation policies. Most of the policies that this work reveals are very useful to contemporary health and sanitation policy-makers in their quest to ensure the desired public health