The latest Demographic Health Survey report has ranked the Upper East Region as the leading Region in the practice of open defecation in the country.
According to the report, seventy-five percent of the people in the region engage in open defecation, meaning every three out of four people are indulged in the menace.
Disclosing findings of the report to journalists at the Commemoration of World Toilet Day in Bolgatanga, Regional Focal Person of the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate, Mr. Asayuure Juventius, said although the position and the numbers are worrying, there is an improvement on the numbers from 2011.
According to him, although upper east was first in last year’s report, the percentage was pegged close to ninety percent but has reduced by fifteen percent; a reduction he believes if continues consistently will help the region achieve an open defecation free status by 2029.
On his part, Programs Manager of the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene project (WASH), Kweku Quansah, thinks the increasing numbers is because most Ghanaians do not prioritize when it comes toilet and therefore called for attitudinal change in order to arrest the menace of open defecation.
He added that in the course of advocating for attitudinal change on the part of the citizens, it is prudent that institutions charged with the enforcement of laws be given the space to enforce them to the latter.
According to him “if you have a toilet and your neighbour does not have and nothing is done to him if my facility breaks down I will not be motivated to even repair it because my other neighbour, nothing was done to him so the need to look at law enforcement as part of behavioral change because once people are faced with the option of whether you do it or not no one does nothing, it’s won’t help.”
He prayed for an end to the interference in the work of Sanitation officers by chiefs and elders of the societies, administrative heads and political leaders in the work of sanitation workers in order for laws to be enforced to arrest the menace.
“Our field worker will tell you the kind of interferences they face from our chiefs and elders, administrative heads and political heads even to the extent that they ask you to even stop sending people to court and if we do that then it’s optional for people to do what is right and no society will develop if the option is for the citizens to do what he/she wants. It becomes a chaos and that’s exactly what you find in the sanitation industry, we need to straighten things up, we need to free people who want to enforce laws so that they will be confident to enforce the laws because with that they will get to know that they won’t be called back to the office to answer to a superior power.”
This year’s World Toilet Day was celebrated under the theme ‘Stop Open Defecation, Own a Household Toilet Now’ and the event held at the Bolgatanga Lorry station and was attended by the Upper East Regional Minister, Albert Abongo, representatives of UNICEF and officials of the Bolgatanga Regional Coordinating Council.
By: Offei-Akoto Ayeh/A1RADIOONLINE.COM/GHANA
