Increase Efforts To Eradicate Open Defecation

Over the years, Ghanashy;ians generally have been urged to put an end to open defecation but the pleadshy;ing appears not to have been well embraced.

This is because the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR), Ms Lydia Seyram Alshy;hassan, has reiterated it, this time urging specifically that stopping open defecation would help to combat the cholera outbreak in the country.

We agree with the minister because even though other envishy;ronmental factors like salinity of river water, hot air temperature and flooding can cause cholera, insanitary conditions, including open defecation, are very high-risk factors.

For instance, when it rains, the run-off can carry human excreta in the open into rivers and other environmental reservoirs of the cholera bacteria.

Rivers, for example, have long been recognised as constituting an ecological corridor and habitat of the cholerae bacterium and its host, the copepod.

This means when there is flooding, the cholera-causing bacshy;terium, Vibrio cholera, can easily come to town and cause havoc.

In view of this, every effort to eradicate open defecation must be supported.

It is not good at all to hear that the 2021 Population and Housing Census report puts open defaeshy;cation in urban areas at nine percent, whilst nationally, it stands at almost 17.7 per cent.

As of 2021, the country’s urban population was 19,038,233, which means 1,713,441 residents were practicing open defaecation, whereas at the national level, 5,451,600 were doing so based on the 2021 PHC figure of 30.8 million as the national population.

As of 2023 the urban populashy;tion had reached 20,213,181, while the national one was 34,121,985.

This is to say that the open defshy;ecation figures may have changed, all things being equal.

However, there is this good news that the government has made “significant strides” in increasing enhanced household toilets from around 13 percent in 2018 to over 25 percent in 2021.

It is clear, the “Pit The National Sanitation Campaign launched in 2017, which embodies the comshy;mitment to end open defaecation and enhance overall sanitation infrastructure across the nation, is behind this achievement.

Therefore, if it is maintained, the country would go far.

Open defecation is an enemy that must be conquered by all means.

Thus, the district assemblies must make sure that all homes have toilets, even if they are uncompleted.

There are cases of people living in uncompleted buildings that have no toilets.

Besides, there are cases of undeveloped plots of land on which squatters are living without them having toilets and so ease themselves into plastic bags and throw them away anywhere.

This too must be checked.

And while we say this, there is one phenomenon that the assemshy;blies must strictly control, if we want to contain cholera outbreaks.

There are some house owners who have connected their manshy;holes to nearby drains to dislodge human waste from their homes into them and this too needs checking.

What about mortuaries which direct their wastewater into nearshy;by drains?

They must be made to treat it before releasing it into the envishy;ronment.

If it is true that 25 percent of the urban population, for instance, depend on public toilets as places of convenience, then the govshy;ernment must build more public toilets in the urban areas and also in certain big towns in rural areas.

If the country really hopes to achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 – Safe toilets for all by 2030, then it has to seriously fight open defaecation and provide more well-managed public places of convenienceGhanaian Times