Mr Issahaku Chinnia Amidu, Deputy Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, says sanitation has quite a number of good benefits but lacked the needed glamour to ensure that everyone living and working in Ghana has access to properly managed toilet.
He said the access to sanitation systems in Ghana was seriously inadequate, adding that, “for about 9 in 10 people in Ghana, sanitation systems are either non-existent or ineffective.
“As a people, our lives revolve around toilets directly or indirectly and we have to take issues of toilets seriously,” he advised.
Speaking at the 2022 World Toilet Day at Ejisu in the Ejisu Municipality of Ashanti, he urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to enforce their bye-laws to complement all the efforts made towards ensuring clean, safe and healthy communities in Ghana.
This, he believed, would go a long way to stop open defecation and increase access to improved household toilets.
This year’s celebration is themed, “Sanitation and Groundwater” with a campaign tag “Making the Invisible Visible”.
He said inadequate sanitation systems spread human waste into rivers, lakes and soil, polluting the water resources underneath.
The problem, however, seemed to be invisible because it happened underground, unnoticed, and in the poorest most marginalized communities.
Mr Chinnia Amidu emphasised that sanitation was important in the socio-economic development of every nation, citing that it protected underground water, prevented climate change and would help in the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He observed that there was a direct correlation between open defecation and socio-economic development.
A World Bank country environmental analysis conducted in Ghana showed that health effects resulting from poor water, sanitation and hygiene cost the country the equivalent of 2.1 percent of annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
According to WHO, the indirect effects of malnutrition – to which poor water and sanitation contribute 50 percent, cost even more than the direct effects, taking the total health cost to 5.2 percent of annual GDP in Ghana.
This figure includes the value of at least 8,000 deaths of children under five caused by diarrheal disease.
Further studies demonstrate that poor water and sanitation significantly contribute to malnutrition, which leads to lower school and work productivity from impaired cognitive function and learning capacity.
GNA
