Assemblies urged to promote household toilets

District Assemblies have been urged to promote Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) household latrines using money from their sanitation budgets instead of putting up more public toilets.

The CLTS household latrines formed part of UNICEF’s Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) programme aimed at eradicating endemic open defecation in the Volta, Northern, Central, Upper-East and Upper-West regions by 2015.

It also includes hand washing.

The suggestion was made at the third quarter review meeting on Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) activities in the Volta Region.

The meeting discussed reports by the Volta Regional Environmental Health directorate, District and Municipal Health Officers and CLTS Coordinators.

It sadi the recent cholera outbreak in the region with 382 suspected cases and six deaths occurred in places where there were public toilets excluding communities where CLTS is being implemented.

The meeting also said many public toilets which were full were often not evacuated on time or not at all thus posing health hazards to communities.

It said best public toilets were sources of revenue for assemblies but that did not make them effective means of environmental hygiene citing the nuisances they caused and difficulties in managing and maintaining them.

The meeting said even though public toilets were meant for visitors they were largely used by community members thus defeating the programme for households to own and be responsible for the management and maintenance of their own toilets.

The meeting acknowledged that public toilets might be needed in markets and schools but these were often vandalized.

The meeting was hopeful that authorities at the Municipal and District Assemblies would be amenable to the CLTS approach to household ownership of toilets when Environmental Health Officers engage officials on the rationale and cost effectiveness of the CLTS in ensuring environmental hygiene.

Household toilets under the CLTS are constructed using simple technology and local materials by artisans trained for that purpose.