SamaSama Flush Toilets For 8 MMDAs In The Northern Region

Eight Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAS) in Northern Region (NR) are benefiting from Sama Sama pour flush toilets to end opened defecation in Northern Region.

The Assemblies include; Tamale Metropolitan, Yendi Municipal, Savelugu Municipal, Sagnerigu Municipal, Kumbungu, Nanumba, Mion and Karaga Districts.

Mrs Jamilatu Mashood, Governance Affair Coordinator announced this during the World Toilet Day Celebration at the premises of Church of Christ Clinic at Yendi in the Northern Region.

The world toilet day is set aside by the United Nations to inspire action to tackle global sanitation crisis.

She said the theme for this year's celebration is 'Waste Water' would focus on containment, transport, treatment and disposal or reuse of water.

According to the Coordinator Sama Sama is a social enterprise with a vision to introducing comfort and convenience into in - home sanitation and their goal was to make sure that the toilet was comfortable.

Mrs. Mashood indicated that sanitation sector faced serious challenges nationally and locally as national access was only 15 per cent implying about 85 per cent of the population lacked access to improved toilets.

She announced that open defecation was a high 80 per cent in some districts and the situation had serious health implications especially for women and children, the reason why Sama Sama had organised the World Toilet Day in Yendi with sponsorship from Global Affairs Canada.

She stated that their team of specialist engineers from around the world had worked hard in collecting information across the three Regions of the North to help design the quality toilet suitable for the communities and families and stated that with an initial deposit of just GH¢150.00 they could have a toilet installed in their homes for the rest to be paid by instalments.

Madam Gundo Na Hajia Samata Abudu said lack of adequate and accessible toilet facilities in public schools, health facilities and households was the major cause of open defecation in their various communities.

Gundo Na Hajia Samata Abudu enstooled Madam Valarie Labi as Gundo Sabta Na Literally means the chief of 'Sama sama' of Gundo under the stool name Sabta Kpansira.

Mr Ndeogo Benard, the Acting Medical Director of Church of Christ Clinic reminded them that the World Toilet Day was officially endorsed in July 24, 2013 by the United Nations in the 67th General Assembly and now Commemorated by 139 member states of the United Nations.

Mr Ndeogo said as people their lives revolved around toilets directly or indirectly and they had to take issues of toilets serious.

Alhaji Ahmed Abubakari Yussif, the Yendi Municipal Chief Executive who chaired the function and also commissioned one of the Sama Sama toilets in a closing remarks indicated that improved sanitation can reduce diarrhoea rates by 36 percent

Alhaji Ahamed Abubakari called on them to work towards ending open defecation in Yendi and the country as a whole.

Seven Sama Sama customers and Toilet Business Owners (TBOs) received various awards of wheel barrows, head pans, trowels, buckets, liquid soap, white Samasama T-shirts, shovels.