Ghana will today join the global community to commemorate the annual World Toilet Day.
The day is celebrated to unite everybody and ensure that access to improved toilet facilities become a reality for all.
This year’s commemoration is themed “Sanitation and Groundwater”, with the campaign tagline as “Making the Invisible Visible”.
Observed November 19 each year by United Nations member countries, it seeks to break the taboo surrounding toilets and raise global awareness on the daily struggles of a staggering 2.5 billion people around the world in accessing toilet facilities.
In a press statement copied to the Ghanaian Times, the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources highlighted a number of activities to mark the celebration, including World Toilet Day mini community durbar at Okese Park at Ejisu in the Ashanti Region, media discussions, and community sensitisation activities.
The activities would also include “commemoration of the day by water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) stakeholders and partners across the country, statement on the floor of Parliament, reading of sanitation messages and sermons in churches and mosques”.
The statement, therefore, called on the media fraternity, religious and traditional leaders to leverage their societal influence to sensitise their followers, congregation and subjects in order to curb open defecation and encourage toilet facilities in household.
The statement noted that tackling open defecation was a collective effort and charged all Ghanaians to join the fight against open defecation in their communities to achieve the sustainable development goal in 2030.
“It is an undeniable fact that poor management of sanitation by individuals and local government authorities has led to exposure of faecal matter into the environment and eventually contaminating our groundwater sources. The practice of open defecation has in no small way also contributed to this state of affairs,” the statement read.
The Ministry charged all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to ensure strict adherence to their bye-laws on
construction of toilets in private and public buildings as it would ensure the success of its flagship programme dubbed “Toilet for all”.
It further tasked management of basic schools all over the country to ensure that institutional toilets provided for them are well maintained and made accessible to all pupils and students, while school-based health teachers ensured students were educated on proper use of these toilets.
BY TIMES REPORTER
