By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Bolgatanga, Oct 14, GNA -Mr Stephen Yakubu, the Upper East Regional Minister, has bemoaned the poor attitude of Ghanaians openly defecating, which is a major public health concern in the country.
He said it was only common sense for Ghanaians not to defecate in the open considering the health risks associated with the practice and called for education on ending Open Defecation (OP) to be intensified to change people’s behaviour.
“Sometimes, it is also common sense that if you are discharging human excreta, it should be discharged in a place where it is acceptable, but you do not just leave your house and go to a particular place and do it and think that it is fine, knowing that people are living there and the repercussion of it,” he said.
The Regional Minister made the call when the executives of the Upper East Regional branch of the Media Coalition Against Open Defecation (M-CODe) called on him as part of familiarisation process since its inauguration in July this year.
The Regional Minister said the practice of open defecation in the region was still a major problem and needed to be tackled collectively.
Mr Yakubu explained that although there were laws and regulations being rolled out by the government through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development aimed at ending the menace, compliance was a serious challenge, and the situation was worse in the Upper East Region.
“The laws are that when you are building your house, you must put toilet facility there, you must even look for building permit before you build, but many people are not doing it. In some areas, the laws are being enforced but here in this region, it is not done and that is the problem,” he added.
The Minister noted that as part of measures to curb the practice, the various Municipal and District Assemblies had been tasked to enact bylaws to be approved and gazzeted to ensure that they enforced compliance.
The Regional Minister commended members of M-CODe for taking the steps to help end the menace and noted that people’s attitudes which were rooted in culture needed to be changed through education and law enforcement.
According to the 2021 Population and Housing Census, 17.7 per cent representing about 5.5 million people in Ghana still practised open defecation and in the Upper East Region 68.4 per cent of people practised open defecation, the highest in the country.
Out of 2,313 communities in the region, only 1,103 communities had attained Open Defecation Free status since 2016, while the Multiple Indicator cluster Survey (MICS), 2018, revealed that only eight per cent of people in the region had access to toilet facilities, which was the lowest among the 16 regions in the country.
This, Madam Fatima Anafu-Astanga, the Regional Convenor, M-CODe, was against the efforts geared at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and called on stakeholders not only enforce the laws but increase budgetary allocation to the area of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).
The M-CODe, established in 2018, through World Vision Ghana and Kings Hall Media partnership, is an advocacy media organisation aimed at ending open defecation through a coordinated approach among journalists.
GNA