GHANA'S SANITATION IS AT STAKE - DAMAKSANITATION WATCH
The state of Sanitation in the country is at stake, and strategic actions must be considered to ensure fulfilment of President Akufo-Addo's promise to make Accra the cleanest city in 2017, during his first State of the Nation Address speech in parliament.
This is the short assessment of DAMAKsanitation watch in three - year after president Nana Akufo-Addo made the declaration.According to the CEO of DAMAKsanitation Watch, Mr. Akgri Daniel, although a lot efforts have been made, yet, the government can do more to ensure that the target is met, as it has currently striving to achieve significant results in improving sanitation in the country by construction of more household toilet facilities to deal with open defecation.
There is also the need government work hard to ensure the enforcement of sanitation by-laws in dealing with persons who flout it. Hence, the focus should not be in building household toilets only but must rather look for proper measures to control the rapid spread of plastic waste as well as draining chucked gutters to avoid future flooding in the major cities. He said, in the 2019, 2020 delivery of State of the Nation Address, president Nana Addo failed to mentioned even a single pragmatic sanitation measure that has been put in place in the major cities such as Accra, Kumasi, Tamale and Sunyani etc. as promised.
Hence, DAMAKsanitation Watch is drawing government attention through the ministry of sanitation and water resources to come out with clearer plans taken to ensuring that the cities become cleanest especially Accra, Ghana's capital. Notably, President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo told Parliament in the delivery of his 2019 State of the Nation Address, said; “Last year, I reiterated before you, my pledge of improving sanitation in the country and making Accra the cleanest city in Africa by the end of my term.
Mr. Speaker, there has been a significant improvement in sanitation even though I acknowledge that more can be done.” He said the country had increased the capacity of solid waste it manages from 16% to 53%, noting that the government in 2018 alone constructed more than 35,000 household toilets to deal with open defecation. “This is currently the state of play, we are witnessing increase of the average of solid waste management to 16% to 53% and over the course of last year, 35,862 household toilets were built as oppose to 1,698 in 2016,” he said. That not withstanding, President Akufo-Addo told parliament in the delivery of his 2020 State of the Nation Address, said; " We are seeing an improvement in the quality of our nation's sanitation, even though we still have a lot more to do.
According to the Northern Regional Environmental Health Unit, in the three Northern Regions, (Savannah, North East and Northern), the number of Open Defaecation Free Communities (ODF) has increased from five percent (5%) as at June 2016 to some fifty-eight (58%) as at July 2019. The latest data from the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources shows that ODF communities in Ghana as a whole have increased from four hundred and ten (410) in 2016 to over five thousand (5,000) communities. Now, that is progress, and it did not just happen, it took hard work, commitment and the provision of infrastructure. In fulfilment of our manifesto commitment of “toilets for all”, we have built thirteen thousand, eight hundred (13,800) toilets, which is largely responsible for this development. Mr Speaker, we have not stopped building toilets, we will build more".
President Akufo-Addo expressed displeasure at the incident of open defecation in the country which he said should not be the case in 2019. He said such conduct was undeserving of Ghanaians and must be eschewed. He said the government was working to enforce sanitation by-laws and deal with persons who failed to complie. In 2018, President Akufo-Addo decried filth which he said had engulfed the country’s capital cities. He further disclosed that a GH¢ 200 million had been earmarked to address the issue of filth, especially in Accra urgently. “We are putting GH₵ 200m into addressing the sanitation challenges that we have.
I am confident that by the time I come back next year, appreciable gains would have been made in improving our sanitation,” he said. The question we end by asking the government through the ministry of sanitation and water resources is that, where, when and how much is each toilet cost the nation. By Akgri Daniel
