Sanitation Ministry Marks World Toilet Day At La Dade-Kotopon

The Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources on Tuesday, November 19, 2019, marked World Toilet Day with a commitment to ensuring every household have a toilet facility.

World Toilet Day is celebrated on November 19 every year to inspire critical actions to tackle the global sanitation crisis and help achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, which promises sanitation for all by 2030.

The Sanitation Ministry launched the commemoration of the day at the La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assembly yesterday in line with the global theme for this year: "Leaving No One Behind."

Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister Hon. Patrick Boamah referred to a 2019 report by the WHO and UNICEF which indicates that 673 million people still practice open defecation worldwide and called on all and sundry to join hands to fight the menace in Ghana.

After a successful launch, the Deputy Minister together with some staff joined the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of La Dade-Kotopon, Mr. Solomon Kotey-Nikoi, and the Member of Parliament for the area, Hon. Vincent Odotei Sowah to tour the community and inspect their work as far as the provision of toilet facilities to households is concerned.

Following visits to several households, the entourage later converged at the St. Maurice Catholic Junior High School to interact and sensitize students on the need to do away with open defecation.

Summing up the findings of the tour in the community, Hon. Patrick Buamah applauded the MCE and the MP for La Dade-Kotopon for their relentless efforts in installing numerous toilet facilities in several households in their municipality to curb open defecation.

“Let me, first of all, congratulate each and every one of us for participating in this exercise and also congratulate the MCE and the Member of Parliament Hon. Vincent Sowah-Odotei. They have all undertaken various projects aimed at eradicating open defecation which has been an issue in this country”, the Deputy Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources stated.

He added; “We all saw what the Member of Parliament has done and what the MCE has done and we are asking every Assembly to also take an active part in ensuring that we eradicate that menace”.

On his part, La Dade-Kotopon MP, Hon. Vincent Odotei Sowah noted that his office is stepping up the provision of the toilet facilities to households.

“We have set up a program where I am providing every household without a toilet with a toilet. We are building toilets so that people can live dignified lives so that we improve upon Sanitation and to make public toilet a thing of the past”.

Meanwhile, the Municipal Assembly through its MCE Mr. Solomon Kotey has called on all households without toilet facilities to beseech his office to make arrangements for them to be provided.