The Sekyere Afram Plains District in the Ashanti Region is most deprived in the area of improved toilet facilities with about 99.5 per cent of households lacking toilet facilities, according to the Ghana Statistical Service multidimensional poverty report.
Open defecation is therefore a common practice across the district which also came last among the 43 districts in the region in terms of the percentage of population living in multidimensional poor households.
These came to light at a forum organised by Vision for Action Foundation in collaboration with the District Environmental Health Department to sensitise community members at Drobonso on the effects of open defecation.
The forum formed part of the implementation of the “I am aware” initiative which seeks to strengthen the demand for accountability and responsiveness in Ghana by improving citizen awareness and engagement with duty bearers about public service delivery issues in the communities.
It being implemented by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) through its partners at the national and district levels with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
According to a survey conducted by the Environmental Health Department, which was presented during the forum, open defecation is prevalent in Drobonso which is the district capital because most households have no toilet facilities.
199 out of 250 households surveyed had no toilet facilities, with the inhabitants admitting they engaged in open defecation.
Even those with toilets, according to the survey, are not up to standard with some of the occupants in those households still engaging in open defecation.
Among the factors contributing to open defecation in the community as identified by the environmental health workers are lack of access to toilets, poor maintenance of sanitation facilities, poverty and lack of resources, and limited awareness of hygiene practices.
It also emerged during the forum which discussed general sanitation in the community, that some residents would rather use litter bins supplied to households for the collection of refuse to store water in their farms for irrigation purposes.
The participants admitted the looming threat of open defecation to public health and called on duty bearers to take steps to address the menace.
They want the Assembly to support households in the construction of toilets and provide another public toilet facility in addition to the only one serving the entire community.
Mr. Sulemana Zakaria, the District Environmental Health Officer, said his outfit had stepped up sensitisation on the need for household toilet facilities as a long-term strategy in addressing open defecation.
He said the widespread phenomenon where people put up buildings without making room for toilet facilities defies logic.
“The Assembly has by-laws that prescribe sanctions against households without toilet, and we are going to continue our sensitisation until the end of the year after which we will start the enforcement of the by-laws,” he told the Ghana News Agency in an interview.
He applauded CDD-Ghana and its partners for supporting the efforts of his office to clamp down on open defecation in the district.
Mr. Justice Owuraku Boafo, Project Coordinator. Vision for Action Foundation, said after engaging the Environmental Health Department on its action plan for the year, they saw the need to tackle the rampant open defecation in the community.
He said as part of the, “I am Aware” project, the Department was funded to undertake the survey to be able to tackle the issue based on data.
The menace, according to him, would persist if the people refuse to embrace behavioral change, hence the need for sustained sensitisation on the benefits of observing good sanitation practices.
“Because we have the data at hand, we shall always track and ensure that members of the community respond positively to the commitments they have made that they will keep their environment clean,” he said.
GNA
YI/ENA
July 8, 2024
