UNICEF Charges Authorities To End Open Defecation

The Country Coordinator of UNICEF-Ghana, Mrs. Loretta Roberts, has called on the Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan, and other stakeholders to devise strategies and commit resources to eradicate open defecation.

She maintained that: "It's indeed possible to attain nationwide open defecation free status with the requisite political will and resources".

She emphasised that UNICEF is well committed to supporting Ghana government and individuals to address its sanitation challenges.

She made these remarks when she addressed participants to launch the social norm campaign - end Open Defecation Now (ODN).

The ODN campaign was launched on December 4 at Center for National Culture in the Central region after similar exercise was held in Northern and Volta Regions.

According to her the launch of the open defecation free campaign is key as the region bears the chunk of poor sanitation in Ghana.

The campaign aims to create awareness that open defecation is dangerous and affects the personal and collective well-being of Ghanaians.

ODN campaign would target policy makers, service providers, environmental health, Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Services, individuals and civil society organisations.

Mrs Roberts told Class News Central Regional correspondent, Maxwell Attah in a sideline interview that achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) goal 6 is feasible adding "if Ghana really takes the campaign serious we should meet the SDGs ahead of schedule especially the component that talks about open defecation."

Mrs Roberts seized the opportunity to commend the governments of Canada and Netherlands for their generous contribution and support towards "the social norms campaign - end open defecation now."

She attributed the massive progress of open defecation eradication in the Northern Region to the strategic and implementation of sanitation league table in all assemblies through the annual assessment.