The Bolgatanga Municipality, Kassena-Nankana Municipality and Nabdam District, have been ranked the 'most dirtiest' in the Upper East Region by the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF League Table.
While Bolgatanga Municipality finished 13th on the spot of the table, Nabdam District and the Kassena-Nankana Municipality garnered 12th and 13th positions, respectively after getting 0.00 percent.
The above municipality and districts cannot boast a single household latrine as residents resort to 'open defecation', an issue that has exposed the people to health hazards.
On the table, Garu-Tempane was placed first on the spot after getting 36.79 percent. Bawku Municipality and Binduri District also finished well behind Garu-Tempane as they got 24.39 and 21.74 percent, respectively.
At stakeholders' engagement workshop organised by UNICEF in Bolgatanga of the Upper East Region, the Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, WASH, David Duncan, said the abysmal performance of some municipalities and districts in ensuring improved sanitation was as a result of lack of commitment and priorities by the Municipal and District Assemblies, MDAs.
He said most of the districts and municipalities lacked household latrines and that, the few public toilets and communal latrines were poorly managed, exposing the people to cholera, malaria, among other diseases.
Mr. Duncan, however, called on duty bearers of the various assemblies, including the Municipal and District Chief Executives, MDCEs who were wielding executive powers to show total dedication to reverse the trend.
With the lukewarm attitude of the people in supporting to stem the issue of poor sanitation in the country, he expressed pessimism Ghana would not succeed in streamlining its sanitation challenges to "the target" in the next 100 years.
This, he said, there was the urgent need for the assemblies to prioritise sanitation and enact bylaws to wage a relentless war against open defecation and punish residents who were not committed to keep the surroundings clean.
The Bawku MCE, Issahaku Bukari, said he was impressed with the performance of his municipality in the UNICEF League Table and pledged his outfit would do everything possible to maintain and improve the status quo.
"I will make sure that anyone, who wants to build a house should include a toilet facility. Some are interested in providing only kitchen and bathroom, but with continuous sensitisation and education, most of them have realised the need to add a toilet facility when they are building houses", he added.
Mr. Bukari acknowledged the commitment of most of his colleague MDCEs to reduce the canker of poor sanitation left much to be desired and called for behavioural change in that regard.
The indicators used in assessing the performance of the districts and municipalities, included the total number of household latrines in a district or municipality, the total number of partners involved in WASH in a district or municipality and the frequent practise of Open Defecation-Free, ODF.
Management of UNICEF hinted it would add the functioning of WASH facilities in MDAs, cleanliness of WASH facilities in MDAs to the indicators to evaluate the performance of MDAs in sanitation in subsequent years.
Source: Francis Dabre Dabang/ email: [email protected]
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