The Deputy Minister for Water Resources Works and Housing, Ms Hannah Bissiwu was yesterday caught on camera squatting on a public toilet at one of the densely populated areas in Accra - Nima.
The Minister who was demonstrating how some people in the country use public toilet during the World Toilet Day, which was observed yesterday squatted on one corner of the toilets in the area, popularly called �KVIP� to demonstrate how the citizenry should use KVIP toilets to help improve sanitation in the country. The Minister recalled with nostalgia her days when she used to rent an apartment without any toilet facility and submitted that, she had to walk distance upon distance to look for a place to ease herself.
To buttress her point, she charged all landlords to include toilets in their buildings when putting up a structure or building. The Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, also called on Ghanaians to stop the open defecation and use toilets. He noted at the celebration that the multiple indicator cluster survey report notes that 51% of the citizenry use shared latrines which are generally not accepted as improved facilities� adding that �this you will agree reflects a national crisis in sanitation�.
Mr. Ankrah continued that government, including his outfit has shown enough commitment to leading the efforts at implementing the national sanitation action plan and commit funding to support effect implementation plan on sustainable basis. �Though we have chalked some successes, a lot more needs to be done especially in the area of our attitude towards the environment as Ghanaians�, he underscored.
The Minister noted that due to non adherence to the building code in the country, a lot of Ghanaians have resorted to the use of public toilets which are meant for transient population. �Given the increasing pressure on these public facilities, the situation is now such that they frequently become full and sometimes overflow leading to their closure and depriving the users of this essential service, the minister said. He pointed out that government alone could not solve the sanitation problem unless all and sundry got on board.
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