UE houses lack toilets(The Mirror-Saturday September 22, 2012 Page 29)

Story: Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bolgatanga Landlords in the Upper East Region have been cautioned to desist from converting toilets in their homes into rooms for renting. The practice when stopped will help to improve sanitation and hygiene conditions as tenants who are compelled to defecate in the open due to the unavailability of the facility, will be discourage from the act. Open defecation is widespread in the Upper East Region with about 90 per cent of the people without any form of latrine. Amongst the contributory factor is none availability of sanitary places and the attitude of people as well as ignorance of the harmful effects of open defecation. The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Madam Lucy Awuni who made the call at the inauguration of a Regional Inter-Agency Committee on Sanitation, (RICCS), at Bolgatanga also tasked municipal and district assemblies to enforce regulations that demand that every household has a clean household toilets to improve hygiene and sanitary behaviors. The role of RICCS will among others provide policy direction, plan, review progress and share experiences that will lead to a harmonized approach to water, sanitation and hygiene(WASH) delivery in the region. Madam Awuni noted that the sanitation situation in Ghana is one of the most important challenges affecting the health and development of the people, little wonder governments over the years have made several efforts at addressing the problem with the latest being the constitution of a National Task Force to clean the filth in the county within the next three months. “Here in the Upper East Region, it is very worrying to see our Municipal and District littered with waste and our drains choked with waste. This to a large extent has contributed to some of the floods being experienced in some residential areas”, she said. While calling on the committee to lead efforts at eliminating the canker of poor sanitation in the region, Madam Awuni also advised the populace to lend their support to deal with the problem. “Throwing of waste from moving vehicles and dumping of household refuse into water channels and at any available space with impunity is the order of the day but surprisingly passers-by, neighbors and friend do not see anything wrong with these behaviors. We all have a role to bring an end to this”, she said. The representative of UNICEF, Madam Emma-Joan Halm said although Ghana achieved its 82 per cent national coverage for access to improved water sources as far back as 2008, against the set Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of 78 per cent by 2015, sadly, achievement for sanitation coverage is hugely off track. She said given the MDG sanitation target of 54 per cent by the deadline of 2015, there is the need for a concerted effort to meet the set target. To address that, she said a number of strategic measures have been established to reverse the poor sanitation coverage. Among these are the adoption of community led total sanitation as a national strategy and the development of the rural sanitation model. She commended the government for showing political will by launching a compact on sanitation and water for all, with a commitment of more than $ 350 million annually for improved water, sanitation and hygiene services as a whole. She further disclosed that in March this year, the Upper East Region received GH c 50,000 as part of government’s support towards community led total sanitation activities in the region. On behalf of UNICEF, she expressed the hope that the committee will work hard and contribute to achieving results and improving the lives of children and women particularly. Membership of the committee is made up of representatives from the Regional Coordinating Council, Community Water and Sanitation Agency, Regional Environmental Health and Sanitation Unit, Ghana Education Service, Department of Community Development, the Red Cross Society and Civil Society organizations. -End-