Ho, Aug. 15, GNA - Ghana needs to act purposefully to improve its poor sanitation profile in Africa, a summary of Ghana's sanitation situation by the Joint Monitoring Platform of the World Health Organisation and UNICEF has said.

"We must do all there is to do to avert this deterioration in our National Environmental Situation."

This was made known on Thursday at a photo exhibition on the summary of the sanitation situation in Africa as part of the UN declared International Year of Sanitation 2008 in Ho.

A caption on one of the photos read: "government can declare sanitation a national emergency and invest the necessary resources for improvement in both health and economic development."

The Ministry of Local Government Rural Development and Environment and UNICEF organised the event, which sought to highlight sanitation concerns worldwide and drew countries attention to the need to act. It was also to call for strong political will to strictly enforce existing sanitation laws, promote media advocacy and give muscle to sanitation related institutions to play their roles effectively.

The Joint Monitoring Platform of the WHO and UNICEF West Africa 2006 report, ranked Ghana 48th out of 52 and 14th out of 15 countries in Africa and West Africa respectively.

"This means that only 10 percent of Ghanaians have access to an improved latrine for defecation, 51 percent use shared latrines, which are not generally accepted as improved facilities due to the health hazards they posed", the summary said.

Another caption on one of the photos said, "About 82 percent of Ghanaians are looking for toilet."

The summary said "Ghana cannot advance to a middle income status with this present level of deplorable sanitation."

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, Mr Albert Kpodonu, Volta Regional Environmental Health Officer said, however, that the sanitation situation in the Volta Region was not that gloomy, following the launch in 2001 of a clean community and school campaign in the region.

He said previously people thought a house was complete without a toilet, bathroom or kitchen.

Mr Kpodonu said District and Municipal Assemblies byelaws on sanitation and building regulations must be strictly enforced.

On the existence of pan latrines on some government rental units, he said the policy was that such latrines would be phased out by 2010. He said a recent court ruling compelling one of the Municipal Assemblies to address a similar problem within its jurisdiction has set a good precedent which tenants in state rental units could take advantage of.

Other captions read: "Improved disposal of human waste protects the quality of drinking sources, air we breathe; "Sanitation is a good investment" and "Sanitation is achievable, now is the time to act".