Ms Perpetual Diabene, the Acting Head of Programmes, WaterAid Ghana, a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) focused organisation has underscored the urgent need to accelerate efforts in making decent sanitation facilities and services accessible at all levels to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
She said it was unacceptable that millions of people, communities and facilities were still without decent hygiene and sanitation facilities, especially toilet facilities and noted that the situation threatened the achievement of SDGs particularly goal six.
She, therefore, called on stakeholders including government institutions, local authorities and the youth to prioritise the provision of sanitation infrastructure at homes, educational and health facilities, and public places to help deal with the menace of open defecation.
Ing Diabene was speaking to some stakeholders from the Bongo District during the commemoration of this year’s World Toilet Day on the theme, ‘accelerating change’, organised
by WaterAid Ghana and held at Bolgatanga.
The celebration brought together stakeholders from the Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, the Bongo District Assembly, traditional authorities, Water and Sanitation Management Teams, women and youth groups among others.
The Acting Head of Programmes lamented that the five regions of Northern Ghana- ‘Savannah, Northern, Upper East, Upper West and North Regions – are the top five on the open defecation league table, stressing, ‘we need to change this narrative.’
She said lots of pregnant women and schoolgirls suffered the negative impacts of lack of WASH facilities particularly toilet, making them to experience complications and absent themselves from school and urged for renewed commitments to ensure that there were decent toilet facilities to promote hygiene practices.
‘Let us unite and let our voices be heard, let us accelerate change as we engage in discussions, we can amplify our impact and work towards a future where no one is left behind, where ev
eryone everywhere has access to proper, decent and safely managed sanitation,’ she added.
Mr Moris Mba, a Public Health Nurse and WASH Focal Person at the Bongo District Health Directorate, noted that access to WASH, especially decent sanitation services, was key to improving healthcare delivery.
He said although some of the health facilities in the district had access to WASH facilities, there were still many health and educational facilities that did not have access to WASH facilities such as water and sanitation facilities.
While commending WaterAid Ghana for their interventions in WASH towards improving the wellbeing of the people, he appealed to the government and other organisations to intensify efforts to help address the WASH challenges and build resilient communities.
Mr Jerry Nyaaba, the Secretary of the Asaloko Community Water and Sanitation Management Team noted that the youth were significant part of the WASH sector and reiterated their commitment to support WASH interventions in their commun
ities.
Mr Nyaaba who spoke on behalf of the youth groups and water and sanitation teams noted that apart from being watchdogs to WASH facilities in their communities to ensure sustainability, they were committed to providing communal labour to construct decent toilet facilities for members of the communities.
Source: Ghana News Agency