William Nlanjerbor Jalulah, the Upper East Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has lent his support to the fight against Open Defecation (OD) in the region.
His comments were made at the Upper East Regional launch of the Media Coalition against Open Defecation (M-CODe) on the back of revelations that just about 8 percent of the entire population of the Upper East Region has access to toilet facilities; the region with the lowest toilet to resident ratio in the entire country.
At the launch of the M-CODe, it also came to light that only 1,103 of the 2,313 communities in the region have been certified as Open Defecation Free (ODF).
It is for this reason that the media, traditional leaders, religious leaders, CSOs, NGOs and all relevant partners must put their shoulders to the wheel in the fight against OD.
“The fight against Open Defecation must be collective. Collective in the sense that health issues affect everybody. We are all in this society and we know what is happening. The fight in the Upper East Region would be intense. As a region, it [the fight against OD] calls for everyone’s hands on deck for us to collectively achieve this target of eradicating the OD situation in our region.”
The Regional Chairman for the GJA who doubles as the General Manager for A1 Radio, a subsidiary of the Agreed Best Communication Limited charged the 15 MDAs across the region to scale up efforts aimed at eradicating OD.
“The MDAs have a lot of work to do. Over the years, I know that they have done their bit but had it been that it was sustainable enough, for me, we would have ended it. Once in a while, we see them make efforts to fight OD through the Environmental Health Unit but it has not been sustainable enough.”
The M-CODe, first instituted in 2018 was to help develop the capacity of the media as advocates for improved sanitation, especially for the eradication of open defecation in Ghana. It also sought to serve as a participatory platform for media practitioners in the ongoing advocacy for improvement in systems to eradicate open defecation.
The constitution of media practitioners would also help challenge relevant authorities and leadership at all levels to take action to stop open defecation and support public sensitization aimed at improved sanitation, especially at ending open defecation.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
