By Gifty Amofa
Accra, Nov.19, GNA - Ada Residents have appealed for resilient toilet facilities suitable for Coastal areas.
They explained that one cannot dig even a foot meter deep without meeting water, making the hole meant for toileting useless.
Mr Samuel Adjovu, an opinion leader who led the appeal, said they resorted to open defecation due to the nature of their land and the high-water table.
Mr Adjovu was addressing members of the Ghana Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Journalists (GWJN) and World Vision Ghana (WVG) ahead of the World Toilet Day observed every November 19.
The team chose to commemorate the Day with communities in Ada, following the outbreak of Cholera.
Global Toilet Day is set aside by the United Nations to assess problems people go through in accessing toilets, challenges of open defecation and lack of proper and regular handwashing which had been linked to Cholera.
Again, Mr Adjovu said since the land is at the sea level and especially when there were high tides, their toilet facilities would be washed away which was also dangerous to their health.
Until an embankment was built to prevent the sea from washing their lands, it would be difficult to build household toilets, he said.
We use the beach, dig, ease ourselves and bury as a result of lack of enough toilets, adding that some people also ease themselves in the open, Mr Adjovu added.
In all, five cases of Cholera with no mortality were recorded at Sege, Anyaman, Goi, Sonkope and Wortumagbe in the Ada West District.They had been treated and discharged.
Mr Sampson Tetteh Kpankpah, the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Ada West, said there were still enforcement of a metre social distancing, cleaning exercises, ensuring of personal hygiene, provision of potable water to areas without water and provision of hand washing facilities to curb the spread of the disease to other areas of the Greater Accra Region.
Mr Kpankpah said in addition to those measures mentioned, a joint Zoomlion-security-Sanitation officers Taskforce had been deployed to ensure the communities complied with the laid down structures.
Mr Yaw Attah Arhin, WASH Technical Specialist of WVG, said the assessment by the team was to support in finding solutions to the emergency and called on development partners and Nongovernmental Organisations to assist the area in ending open defecation by building toilets and providing handwashing facilities.
He said the team chose to celebrate the Day with the communities due to the recent outbreak of Cholera.
Mr Arhin said having Cholera means consuming anything contaminated with faecal matter, stating that the five Northern Regions recorded the highest in terms of open defecation whilst the Greater Accra Region had the lowest.
However, he said Ada had a high prevalence in open defecation as some districts in the Northern Regions.
He said WVG was committed to ensuring that every child enjoyed life and in all its fullness hence the need to protect them from contracting Cholera.
About 3,600 children die annually worldwide as a result of dirt related diseases such as Cholera, he said.
Mr Arhin said communities would continue in poverty even if the best of facilities were provided excluding WASH facilities which also affected the wellbeing of children.
He called on the assemblies to find a sustainable financing mechanism (pre-financing) to support households to own toilet facilities, so they paid in instalments.
Madam Millicent Ohui MacCarthy, District Environmental Health Officer, said there were many other suspected cases of the disease but only five had been confirmed, saying that samples of stools had been sent to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research for testing.
She said affected areas had been fumigated whilst staff from the Ghana Health Services, National Commission for Civic Education and Sanitation Directorate were out there in schools, markets and others for sensitisation and education.
Madam MacCarthy advised that with or without toilet facilities sanitation was about personal hygiene and encouraged the public to wash hands before eating as well as eat only hot meals.
Mr Franklin Asare Donkor, National Organiser of GWJN, called for the strict enforcement of bylaws on sanitation.
The assessment also supported by the Ghana Education Service and GHS took the team to schools, homes, communities in Ada East District, chiefs, interacted with opinion leaders and assembly members, among others to sensitise the public about the outbreak and its prevention.
Mr Thomas Korley, Zoomlion Foundation Coordinator, sensitising school children, advised them against “shit bombing” and become ambassadors against dropping polythene bags full of faeces in their containers which made their work difficult.
GNA