Toilet facilities in Kassena-Nankana Municipality locked up as public defecate openly

Correspondence from Upper East Region.

Three toilet facilities in the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly, constructed under the erstwhile NDC government, have been locked up and left to rot despite that they are fully completed and can be used.

The situation has compelled residents of Balobia and Nogsenia, where the facilities are located, to engage in Open Defecation suffocating efforts by the Assembly to raid the Municipality of the menace.

At the facility in Balobia, GhanaWeb observed that residents passed stools on the corridor and the immediate surroundings of the building. A water system connected to the facility had been destroyed. Most of the wooden parts of the structure were in bad shape.

Residents who confided in Correspondent, Senyalah Castro, said several calls placed to the Municipal Assembly to open the facility for use proved futile. They blamed the politicization in the area for the delay.

“The facility is on our land. We gave out the land for the construction of it to help the people. But authorities have refused to open it since it was completed some five years ago. When we complained some people in authority labeled us as NDC people”. Stated a frustrated resident.

The Assemblyman for the area, Abdul Mumuni Nyoka, when contacted confirmed the issue has been reported to the Municipal Assembly. He blamed the Assembly for failing to operate the facility, saying, “the current administration is playing with all projects in the constituency completed by the NDC”.

He further said, “that toilet facility and another one near the cocoa marketing board were constructed and competed in 2016 by then MP, Mark Woyongo. They were commissioned and handed to the municipal assembly to see how they can operationalize them. But as I speak they have not been opened to the public and they are rotting away”.

“When I asked, the assembly said they gave it out to someone. The person later said he was not given anything and it went on and on. The assembly tossed the person around until the person got fed up and stopped going to them’. Now the assembly says the challenge is that they don’t have someone to manage it. But they have forgotten that the facility is rotting. The water tank was blown away by the wind, the municipal engineer and team came for it and have since not said anything or returned to fix it”. Mr. Nyoka lamented.

The situation was not different at one of the facilities in Nogsenia, behind the Cocoa Marketing Board building. That facility too was under lock and key, with human excreta dotted around it. A farmer used the premises to grow crops to control the defecation around it, GhanaWeb was told.



Openings to the facility’s septic tank were left uncovered, exposing danger to human lives and the lives of domesticated animals in the community.

Another important toilet facility left unused is one near the Navrongo Chief’s Palace. It was put up during Former President Kufuor’s regime. GhanaWeb learned the deplorable nature of the facility and the person into whose care it would be entrusted is the reason it is still locked up.

On the deplorability, our Reporter gathered that the attention of the Municipal Assembly has been drawn, a team from the Assembly was made to assess the situation but no effort has since been made to give the structure a facelift.

“for this facility, someone was made to manage it but the person was rather interested in looking after an old, dilapidated one near this new one. So we asked him to go and we locked it. Another issue is that it is in bad condition. So we informed the assembly to renovate it but they have said nothing even though they made people come and inspect it”. Sources said.

When GhanaWeb visited the offices of the Municipal Engineer to speak to issues, he was not available. The reporter was told he had left office. His contact number was also denied the reporter.