By Kweku Quansah
Today, 19th
November, 2012 is World Toilet Day. A day set aside by the international
community to draw attention to the fact that a whopping 2.5 billion people in
the world, representing 37% of the world’s total population, do not have any
known place where they defecate.
Millions of people the world over, struggle everyday just to attend a simple basic nature’s call. In the process, some are bitten by reptiles, have cuts and get maimed.
Millions of
innocent girls and women also get raped and live with the psychological trauma for
the rest of their life.
On World Toilet
Day, the world unites to create awareness and make the noise about this global
sanitation challenge. It is commemorated across the globe and people from all
works of life - the media, private sector, development partners, civil society,
government agencies, children and women - join hands to advocate for clean and
safe toilets for all.
On this unique
day, one cannot forget the commonest spectacle in our small towns, peri-urban
and major cities virtually every day: the indiscriminate disposal of human
faeces. Faeces is found everywhere, more
especially around our water bodies, beaches,
bushes, open spaces, gutters, refuse dumps, under bridges and channels,
uncompleted buildings and backyards.
In 2011, the
Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) of the World Bank did a study on Ghana. It
was revealed that a typical Ghanaian spends two and half days every year to
look for an obscure or ‘private’ place to defecate.
This has huge
losses in economic terms. As a nation,
we lose close to GH¢ 37million every year due to this practice. This calls for action. We need to do
something about it as a nation.
The main reason
why people do it openly is the lack of or inadequate toilet facilities in our
homes, schools, public places, communities and workplaces. Where they even
exist, they are poorly maintained.
Many toilets
have become a source of disease transmission and distribution. The pungent
smell that emanates from some of these places of ‘inconvenience’ is intolerable.
Some have become death traps and safe homes and breeding grounds for all types of
reptiles, rodents, etc.
This situation
de-motivates people and puts them off from using these facilities. Is it any
wonder then that such people resort to open defecation?
Besides, a
number of people also like to defecate outside for the pleasure of it. Squatting in open places to defecate comes
with what such people term the fringe
benefits of ‘free air-condition’, and such satisfied ‘users’ find it extremely
difficult to let this behaviour go.
I read a story
about a rich family in Asia. This family packs themselves every morning into a
Benz Saloon Car and go to the outskirts of the city, into bushes, to defecate.
This family has three toilets in their house and the question is why they are
not using them. It is simply an issue of old habits die hard.
This year’s
World Toilet Day theme adopted by Ghana is simply: “ACHIEVING OPEN DEFECATION
FREE GHANA’’. Yes, we need to achieve an Open-Defecation-Free status sooner
than later. As a country we cannot bear the social and economic cost of open defecation
any more.
The most current
statistics on Ghana (WHO/UNICEF JMP, 2010) shows that as high as 19% of Ghanaians do not have a
‘fixed defecation address’ and as such defecate in the open every morning. This
translates into 4.6 million.
When one does a
20 year trend analysis, that is from 1990 to 2010, we have merely reduced the
percentage of Ghanaians who defecate in the open from 22% in 1990 to 19% in
2010. Just a marginal three percentage point reduction over two decades. What a
snail pace reduction.
Sadly enough, the
4.6 million Ghanaians who defecate in the open every morning knowingly or unknowingly
contaminate our water sources and the general environment and as well spread
diseases like diarrhoea, which according to a study by the Water and Sanitation
Programme of the World Bank study, kills about 5,100 precious Ghanaian children
under five years every year. This is disturbing. We do not have to allow our
innocent children to die.
Can you imagine that
just one gram of human faeces dropped in an open place, contains 10 million
viruses and 1 million bacteria? These pathogens spread diseases of all kinds, leading
to deaths and maiming of our citizens. It also causes intestinal worm
infestation, a major contributor to stunting in children and malnutrition,
which hold back their physical and mental growth.
Acquisition and
use of toilets has moved from the health arena and has now become a human rights
issue. This was declared by the UN. There
are even emerging sound economic arguments for sanitation.
Many brilliant girls
have stopped schooling because their schools do not have toilets and the
accompanying handwashing and hygiene facilities. These girls have missed out on
this important and crucial life ‘support system’ called schooling. Can we
imagine the socio-economic consequences and pressure these girls will later on
in life, put on society?
The challenges
in sanitation are numerous and complex but the consequences for not tackling
them are even more expensive and complex.
There is
therefore the urgent need for government and all and sundry to prioritise
sanitation as a social service. As a country, we need to target the sanitation
sub-sector for investment. The current investment into sanitation is less than
1% of the GDP.
Meanwhile as a
country we are losing almost 1.6% of our GDP as a result of poor sanitation. Investments
are required not only for the populace to enjoy maximum health and hygiene
benefits but also to reduce the economic losses the country is experiencing.
Our
Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies need to enforce the building
regulations concerning construction of household latrines. Building regulations
are being flouted with impunity. For example some landlords in our cities, convert
toilets and other sanitary facilities in their houses into living rooms and
rent them out to unsuspecting tenants.
Targeting the
sanitation needs of the poor and the vulnerable groups in society. especially
women and children, will be a right move. After all sanitation is dignity.
Until the
Almighty grants us the grace and health to commemorate yet another world toilet
day next year, we should be each other’s keeper and take the pledge of
supporting the national effort of eliminating open defecation.
Talk about it,
act, own a toilet in your house, use a toilet. It is more dignifying to do so.
Your health comes from where you defecate.
Let us all scale
up efforts to eliminate open defecation from Ghana. It is achievable.
With all hands
on deck WE CAN STOP OPEN DEFECATION IN GHANA.
Kweku
Quansah
Ministry
of Local Government and Rural Development
Environmental
Health and Sanitation Directorate
Accra
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