Government institutions have been urged to go the extra mile to enforce laws on open defecations and ensure the availability of household toilets in their area of jurisdiction.
This was made known by the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah at the commemoration of the 2018 World Toilet Day in Accra.
She said about thirty five percent of urban dwellers in Ghana patronise public toilet and nineteen percent of our population defecate in the open.
It is estimated that about 4.5 billion people worldwide live without ‘Safely Managed Sanitation’ and about one point two million people practice open defecation.
Sustainable Development Goal Six aims to achieve sanitation for all and end open defecation in 2020.
World Toilet Day is an official United Nations International observance Day celebrated on November 19 every year to inspire action to tackle the global Sanitation crisis.
In efforts to eradicate open defecation in the country, the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources has launched sanitation Technology Initiative dubbed ‘Sanitation Hackathon’.
In a speech read on her behalf, the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah said fifteen percent of Ghanaians have access to improved toilet facilities and this has increased by nine percent in the last twenty years.
She said there is the need to create jobs for the youth through innovative sanitation businesses and private sector participation.
Ghana celebrates World Toilet Day every year and the theme for this year is “When Nature Calls”. This theme was chosen in respect to the annual cholera outbreak in Ghana, especially in 2014.
Story by Harriet Lamptey and Rudolph Nandi
