Public Agenda (Accra)
Ama Achiaa Amankwah
21 November 2008
Many homes in Ghana lack improved toilets as most households toilets are converted to living rooms and some houses built without toilet facilities. As a result a lot of people, especially in the city centres roam helplessly daily looking for toilets to use.
Some resort to public toilets while others defecate in the open, irrespective of the health concerns of such actions.
Women and girls are particularly vulnerable to violence if conditions force them to defecate only after nightfall and in secluded areas.
The Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) believes that every Ghanaian deserves to have access to clean toilets to ease themselves with dignity everyday.
It states that access to improved sanitation is not a privilege but a fundamental human right.
According to the World Toilet Organization, some 2.5 billion people (40%) of the world population lack basic sanitation.
The Ghana Statistical Service Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) Report 2006 states that over four million Ghanaians defecate in the bush, open drains, water bodies or fields instead of using a latrine.
The report states that open defecation is prevalent in all ten regions.
Data by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) shows that about 80% of all Out Patient Department (OPD) cases such as malaria, diarrhea, cholera and hepatitis are sanitation and water related.
Consequently, Ghana is said to be off-track in terms of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for access to improved toilet facilities, states a most recent report on sanitation by the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) of the WHO and UNICEF.
According to Joint Monitoring Programme of the WHO/UNICEF, if the rate of progress on sanitation in Ghana should remain as it is now, then the country will achieve just about 15% by 2015.
As at 2006, Ghana had achieved only 10% instead of about 30%, which could have translated into 53% by 2015.
The UN declared 2008 International Year of Sanitation as an opportunity for countries with low sanitation coverage to improve. However, the year is almost ending and Ghana is showing no sign of progress.
At a press briefing in Accra to mark the World Toilet Day under theme, "We Deserve Better", CONIWAS called for drastic and concerted efforts to ensure that most Ghanaians have access to clean toilets in view of the impact of toilets on health and the dignity of people.
Communications Person of CONIWAS Ms Basilia Nangbine stressed that by a clean toilet, CONIWAS means any improved toilet facility that hygienically separates human excreta from human contact.
"Improved sanitation services and hygiene practices need to be emphasized as a major element for the building of human capability in the full poverty reduction strategy for Ghana. Therefore, investments in water and sanitation should be considered as investments for the nation for building human capability to reduce the overall poverty," she stated.
Ms Nangbine noted that Ghana has made many international commitments and declarations on improved sanitation yet enforcement of laws and building regulations are weak.
She called on metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to enforce the building codes, which require that every house built has a toilet facility and to prosecute landlords who default this.
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