The fourth Child Sanitation Diplomat has cautioned adults engaging in open defecation to stop the shameful practice to keep the environment clean and safe.
“Adults should desist from bad sanitary practices to help children embrace the habit of good sanitation within our communities,” Miss Adwoa Gyakoa Appiah-Kubi, the Child Sanitation Diplomat cautioned.
Miss Appiah-Kubi, the current Child Sanitation Diplomat, and pupil from Efutu M/A basic school in the Cape Coast Metropolis, at the launch of her campaign to advocate for improved sanitation, expressed concern that 25 percent of all public basic schools 11 percent of all private basic schools lacked access to improved and hygienic toilets.
She indicated that inadequate access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services was a major cause of many diseases and deaths around the world.
In Ghana, while there was high access of 87.7 percent to basic drinking water, the same could not be said of basic sanitation which was only 25.3 percent with access to improved toilet facilities according to the Population and Housing Census 2021.
In addition, more than five million people, representing 17.7 percent of households in Ghana defecate in the open such as beaches, bushes etc which translates into about 1,300 tonnes of faeces every day.
The Child Sanitation Diplomat said she was committed to ending bad sanitation practices, promote greater prioritisation of sanitation by government and all stakeholders, especially citizens, and to foster national consciousness towards the fight against poor environmental sanitation in Ghana.
Outlining her activities in her one-year sanitation project, she pledged to embark on peer sensitisation which include visits to schools in Ghana, produce short videos, messages campaign photography, T-shirts, and campaign posters/flyers to promote the cause.
Also, she would engage the media basically, radio and television interviews and produce campaign documentary to be broadcast across the country.
Components of her project to promote access to improved toilets in basic schools and healthcare facilities with hand washing facilities and changing rooms for girls is also on course.
She noted that 11.7 percent of the population in the Central Region practiced open defecation and therefore advocated for accelerated and sustainable action to end open defecation in the country.
Miss Kubi was poised to promote sustainable access to improved household toilet facilities and the practice of handwashing, encourage government and MMDAs to introduce innovative financing arrangements such as the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA SWP) and GASSLIP model which will ensure that every household owned an improved toilet.
The project would be supported by the World Vision Ghana, Ministry of Sanitation, Water and Natural Resources, Zoomlion Foundation, Ghana Education Service, GAMA SWP, and Kings Hall Media Limited.
She appealed to all relevant stakeholders especially parents to support children by inculcating good sanitation practices in them for national development.
GNA
AT/BM/LAA
07 Feb 2024
Pics attached
