The Media Coalition Against Open Defecation (M-CODe), has commended the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources for rolling out a nationwide enforcement exercise to ensure the availability of toilet facilities for every household.
M-CODe considers the effort as laudable and a breakthrough in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Target 6.2, which requires achievement by 2030 of access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and the end of open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women, girls and those in vulnerable situations.
In a statement signed by Mr Francis Ameyibor, the M-CODe National Convenor, Dr Freda Prempeh, the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, was applauded for championing the deployment of sanitation guards throughout the country, to help landlords and landladies construct household toilets.
The statement said Dr Prempeh deemed it imperative for every landlord or landlady to make toilet facilities available to their tenants hence, under the exercise, those who faltered, would be given some grace period to work on that.
However, those whose houses had no toilets and failed to provide them within the grace period would be prosecuted.
The Statement pledged that the coalition would support the initiative of the Ministry of Sanitation across the country to ensure that the needed public education and sensitisation were carried out with other stakeholders, including the ministry.
It said people who did not have access to a hygienic toilet and a place to wash their hands were often exposed to an array of fecally transmissible and potentially deadly diseases, that could be prevented with improved sanitation.
It indicated that sanitation and hygiene were motors that drive health, social and economic development around the world.
Meanwhile, M-CODe would hold a three-day empowerment forum from Wednesday, August 30th, to Friday, September 1st, for journalists in the Eastern Region to enhance their reportage on open defecation, eliminating the menace by the year 2030.
The statement said the event, supported by World Vision Ghana, formed part of the M-CODe 2023 Anti-Open Defecation Nationwide Advocacy activities.
Apart from the journalists, other participating stakeholders included the Regional Coordinating Council, Regional Environmental Health Officer, Municipal Environmental Health Officer, Ghana Education Service Regional and Municipal and the Regional SHEP Coordinator.
Others are the Municipal SHEP Coordinator, Ghana Health Service regional and municipal, Community Water and Sanitation Agency, Department of Community Development, Department of Gender, National Commission for Civic Education, and Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice.
The rest are the Centre for National Culture, Ghana Journalists Association Eastern Regional Chapter, Rural Watch Ghana, Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, Ghana Medical Association, Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health,
Divine Mother and Child Foundation, Charis Touch Foundation.
It also included the Christian Relief Organization, Nsawam, Plan International Ghana, Solidaridad West Africa, People’s Participation Programme, Begoro; and United Youth Club International, Nsawam.
M-CODe through the support of World Vision Ghana and Kings Hall Media has set up regional chapters in Volta, Ashanti, Northern, Bono, Upper East, Central, and the National Chapter in Greater Accra.
It considers empowerment through capacity building, linking strategic stakeholders in the fight against open defecation together, and creating a platform to expose communities still practising the act as part of national efforts towards ending the practice.
The statement said M-CODe would continue to engage strategic stakeholders, including Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Ministry of Sanitation, among others, to revamp and sustain activism, to change the parameters and create an open defecation-free society.
Source: Ghana News Agency
