By Mohammed Balu
Tumu, (UWR), Nov. 19, GNA – This year’s World Toilet Day has been marked in Tumu in the Sissala East Municipality with a street procession by school children amidst brass band music to draw attention to hygienic toilet use.
Over sixty participants drawn from three basic schools in the municipality and other officials of the Sissala East Municipal Assembly, marched through some principal streets of Tumu and converged at the Sissala East Municipal Assembly premises where the Global Communities, an NGO addressed them.
Mr Martin Sumbo, the Social Behaviour Communication Specialist of Global Communities, in a speech on the theme: “Accelerating change,’’ said there were currently about 3.5 billion people living without safe toilets, out of which 419 million still practised open defecation.
He said that led to the spread of diseases killing about 1,000 children under five years every day.
“This global crisis also poses a threat to nature and everyone’s health, particularly women, girls, and other vulnerable groups.
“Your action, however, small will help improve toilets and sanitation systems and protect nature,” Mr Sumbo explained.
He said the countdown had begun with just seven years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 6), which demanded safe toilets and water for all by 2030.
Mr Sumbo noted that Global Communities, together with other development partners across the World, was marking World Toilet Day 2023 by accelerating change.
Some of the participants held placards that read, “We all deserve clean and new toilets”, “Never underestimate the importance of having a toilet by keeping your toilet clean”, and “You can take a step towards better health, don’t neglect your toilet, keep it clean” among others.
The World Toilet Day was celebrated under the USAID Enhancing Wash Activity led by Global Communities.
The World Toilet Day is traced to 2001 when the first one was marked in Singapore by the World Toilet Organisation and recognised as an annual United Nations initiative.
Madam Portia Zumawelle, the Health Promotion Officer at the Sissala East Health Directorate, emphasised the need for homes to have household toilets and keep them clean.
When the Ghana News Agency (GNA) spoke to some residents of Tumu about the toilet situation, Mr Allos Danlardi said: “Some of them have built toilets in their homes.”
He, however, said the vehicle to dislodge and discharge the toilet had to come from Wa, which was causing some of the people to go back to open defecation.
GNA