Hope for Future Generations (HFFG) has marked this year’s World Toilet Day with a procession through some communities in Ngleshie Amanfrom in the Ga South Municipality of the Greater Accra region.

The procession was organized to highlight the significance of World Toilet Day and serve as an opportunity to sensitize residents of Ngleshie Amanfrom on the need to use appropriate and approved toilet facilities in order to reduce open defecation within the municipality.

The procession, which comprised staff of HFFG, Ga South Municipal Environmental Health Office, some community members and traders of the Ngleshie Amanfrom market, went through the Galilea Township, the Weija lakeside and finally converged at the Ngleshie Amanfrom market, where traders and the general public were sensitized on the need to eradicate open defecation.

The celebration was in line with the national World Toilet Day theme: The impact of open defecation on the socioeconomic development of Ghana.

The exercise forms part of HFFG’s activities under the Urban Community-Led Total Sanitation (UCLTS) component of the Ghana Netherlands WASH Programme (GNWP). The project is being implemented in five municipalities in the Greater Accra and Central regions, of which Ga South is a beneficiary.

Participants carried placards, some of which had messages such as: “I don’t defecate in the bush, do you?”, “Landlords, provide toilets in your houses”, “Together we can make Ghana clean”, “Parents, don’t teach your children to defecate openly”, Let’s stop open defecation, and We need a clean Ghana. At the Weija lakeside, participants advised fisher folk along the lake to desist from defecating openly, especially close to or into the lake as it may pollute the lake.

Some Environmental Health Officers sensitizing traders at the Weija lakeside At the Ngleshie Amanfrom Galilea market, the team encouraged traders to desist from defecating openly and insist that their landlords provide toilet facilities in their houses.

The Municipal Environmental Health Officer, Ga South Assembly, Madam Patience Akasreku, advised traders and the general public alike to desist from defecating openly as it is against the laws of Ghana. She encouraged the traders to report anyone they see defecating openly and serve as advocates for the eradication of the practice.

GNWP Project Coordinator at HFFG, James Anquandah, added that open defecation has impacts negatively on the socioeconomic development of Ghana. He cited the wastage of land meant for developmental purposes such as housing, recreational grounds, playing fields, markets, and community centres, which have been turned into open defecation grounds.

The practice, according to the Coordinator, leads to an unclean and polluted environment, coupled with the amount of money likely to be spent on reclaiming such defaced lands in order to make them useable.

He appealed to Ghanaians to play their collective roles in ensuring their communities and the nation at large, are declared open defecation- free in the shortest possible time.