Sanitation Ministry To Ensure Every Household Gets Toilet

The Deputy Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Hon. Patrick Buamah has assured the general public of the Ministry's commitment to ensuring that every household gets a toilet facility.

He said this during an interaction with the media on the sidelines of the commemoration of the World Toilet Day at La Dade-Kotopon on Tuesday, November 19, 2019.

The World Toilet Day was officially endorsed on July 24, 2019, by the United Nations (UN) 67^thGeneral Assembly and is marked by all 139 member states.

Each year the day is marked to raise awareness on world toilet challenges and also gives all and sundry the chance to get involved in the global movement of “Toilets and Sanitation for all’ as well as the need for action to end the sanitation crisis.

In a country where open defecation and lack of household toilets is a big challenge, the government through the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources has taken it upon itself to tackle the situation.

Speaking to the media after launching the commemoration of the World Toilet Day on the theme ‘Leaving No One Behind’, Deputy Minister for the sector Hon. Patrick Buamah stressed; “The Ministry is committed to expanding access to safe toilets and will leave no one behind”.

In line with that, the Ministry has utilised part of its 2019 budget to construct 2,000 household toilet facilities in low-income communities within the five Metropolitan Assemblies of Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi, Tamale, and Cape Coast under the One House One Toilet (1H1T) policy.

In addition to that, the Environmental Health Units of the District Assemblies are also facilitating the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) implementation at the community level. Toilets inputs like the Digni-Loo is being used as a support for the construction of toilet facilities to speed up the achievement of the CLTS.

The Greater Accra Sustainable Sanitation and Livelihood Improvement Projects (GASSLIP) has been initiated to complement the efforts of the Ministry in ending open defecation.

The project will provide 7,000 household toilets in low-income urban communities and connect 500 houses to the existing sewage system.

According to Hon. Patrick Buamah, the Sanitation Ministry through the GAMA WSP project has been able to “reduce the country’s toilet deficit by constructing 25,638-unit toilets to provide for over 178,000 households in low-income communities in the Greater Accra Metropolitan to improve toilet facilities” in the last two years.

In the Ministry’s effort to remain resolute in its quest to get every household a toilet facility to totally curb open defecation, they are set to embark on mass media Education as well as the use of community outreach programs on stopping open defecation and promoting the use of household toilets.