Samuel Agbewode
21 August 2008
Ho — The issue of poor sanitary conditions in the country is a major worry to health workers, as it is becoming increasingly clear that most people fail to adhere strictly to health education, a situation that has resulted in the high rate of communicable diseases.
As a result of the devastating effects of poor sanitation in towns and cities, throughout the country, the Volta Regional Environmental Health Department held a forum with the media, and discussed the dangers ahead of the populace, if they continued to destroy the environment, as well as litter their surroundings, and how to create the needed awareness through the media, in Ho.
Speaking at the function, the Regional Environmental Officer, Mr. Albert Kpodonu, said the forum, which formed part of activities to mark the International Year of Sanitation, placed emphasis on decent toilet facilities, as it was a major threat to efforts at promoting environmental hygiene, in the country in particular, and the world in general.
Mr. Kpodonu disclosed that two billion people in the world have no access to proper toilet facilities, while in Ghana eighty-two per cent of the total population, have no public place of convenience, hence rampant indiscriminate defecation, thereby increasing the infection rate of communicable diseases in the country.
He said studies showed that an individual, produced point zero five kilograms faecal matter a day, noting that most of this was done in the open, which would be washed away into water sources, which served as major sources of water for some people, thereby contaminating the water.
Mr. Kpodonu pointed out that the greatest health benefits accrue, when every household in a community, has access to, and uses a hygienic toilet, and urged the media to help educate the people on better health and child survival in the society, as he put it, "the health of the nation depends on sanitation."
The Volta Regional Environmental Officer said the problem in the region was that most private homes, particularly in the regional capital, Ho, depended on public toilets, which he explained was meant for visitors, adding that there was the need for people to include toilets in their site plans, in order to make it complete.
Mr. Kpodonu expressed concern about the situation, where most districts and municipal assemblies, paid more attention to sanitation only in the towns and cities, to the detriment of the small towns and communities, noting that the towns and cities generate forty per cent of waste, while the villages generated sixty.
Contributing, the National Photo Exhibition Programme Facilitator, Madam Irene Mensah, said Ghana's sanitation coverage stood at ten per cent as at the end of 2006, which means that only ten per cent of Ghanaians have access to an improved latrine for defecation, while fifty-one per cent of Ghanaians used shared latrines, which she stressed was not acceptable.
Madam Mensah said Ghana runs forty-eight in Africa, out of fifty-two countries, and fourteenth out of fifteen countries in West Africa, a situation she noted, should be considered as a national crisis, and called for collaborative efforts by all to improve on sanitation in the country.
The first Runner-up of Ghana's Most Beautiful, Miss Eyram Dotse, who hails from the Region, said she observed that much attention was being given to sanitation-related activities, hence her decision to embark on a vigorous education programme, to create the needed awareness on sanitation in the region.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Ghanaian Chronicle. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
