Access to toilets in Ghana still low - Minister

Mr Julius Debrah, Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Wednesday expressed exasperation about the rather slow improvement in the access to toilets by citizens across the country.

He said the six percent access in 1990 rose to only 15 percent in 2013, a dismal situation, giving indication, Ghana might not meet the Millennium Development Goal (MGD) target of 54 percent.

Mr Debrah gave this assessment in a speech read for him at a ceremony in Ho to mark World Toilet Day in Ghana.

He said “about 35 percent of urban dwellers in Ghana patronize public toilets and a whopping 23 percent of our population defaecate in the open”.

The theme of the Day, is “The Impact of Open Defaecation on the Socio-Economic Development of Ghana”.

The Minister said despite the challenge of low toilet coverage, the “Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development is committed to ensuring that we make good progress by the 2015 deadline, though we cannot achieve our national MDG target of 54 percent”.

Naa Lenason Demedeme, acting Director of Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate of the MLGRD, said by estimation 5.9 million people in Ghana defaecated in the open today.

“These people in most cases had no option than to follow the masses to attend natures call in the gutters, bushes, banks of water sources, into polythene bags, behind people’s houses, and available open places,” he stated.

Naa Demedeme said data compiled by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) indicated that Ghana’s progress to attain that sanitation target was off-track.

“Based on the average cost of a latrine, it is estimated that Ghana requires a total expenditure of Ghc 2.2 billion (US$ 1.5 billion) to meet the sanitation MDG target.

“This equates with roughly Ghc 100 (US$ 70) per capita over a 10 year period or Ghc 10 (US$ 7) per capita annually,” he stated.

Naa Demedeme said Ghana “will need to significantly investment in order to improve sanitation”.

David Duncan, UNICEF, said World Bank in 2012 estimated open defaecation cost Ghana $ 79 million dollars.

He called for scaling up of rural Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) programmes.

Francis Ganyaglo, Deputy Volta Regional Minister, hailed the institution of Sanitation Day for the first Saturday every month.

Miss Richlove Azadagli, a Ho Methodist Junior Secondary School student, in an appeal on behalf of school pupils lamented the very horrible conditions of toilets in many schools.

She said some had palm branches as partitioning. The place was often messy and many pupils tip toed to get in and use corn cobs or already used sheets to clean themselves.

The programme was largely attended by public sector workers and students.