Sunyani (B/A), Aug. 22, GNA - More than a million people from 2,640 communities in the Brong-Ahafo Region, has benefited from the Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Project (STWSSP) since 1994.

The beneficiary communities have been provided with boreholes, hand-dug wells or pipe systems to serve them with portable water to enhance their health status.

This came out at a day's regional sensitization seminar and mobile photo exhibition on sanitation to commemorate the International Year of Sanitation (IYS) in Sunyani on Thursday.

The seminar organized by the Environmental Health Agency, was attended by representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environmental Health Officers, Small Towns Water and Sanitation Project and members of the media.

Mr Johnson Otopah Appiah, Extension Service Specialist of the National Community Water and Sanitation Supply (NWSSP), said the region had increasingly benefited from the establishment of water and sanitation facilities from 18 per cent between 1994 and 1999 to 55 percent between 1999 and 2007.

He said the French government had donated 16 million euros to the Brong-Ahafo Region towards the achievement of the nation's target of increasing the establishment of water and sanitation projects to 69 percent at the end of 2008 and 79 per cent by 2012.

Mr Appiah said the money would be used to construct 18 small towns pipes system, three multi-village pipes system, 621 boreholes, 161 school latrines and 5,000 household latrines across the region. The project is estimated to serve a population of 1,819,680.

Ms Irene Mensah, the National Coordinator, Photo Exhibition of the International Year of Sanitation, noted with concern Ghana's poor sanitation record and said she was ranked 48th out of 52 countries in Africa and 14th out of the 15 West African countries.

She said the report on the sanitation showed that only 10 per cent of Ghanaians have access to an improve latrines and added that 51 per cent of citizens shared latrines that were generally not accepted as improved facility.

"The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) for sanitation is to reduce by one and half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015", she stressed. Ms Irene Mensah commended the region for the improvement made in sanitation facilities by which 79.1 per cent of 2,295 household members have improved sanitation facilities.

Mr Sylvester Ankomah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Environmental Health Officer, appealed to landlords to as matter of emergency provide toilet facilities for their households to help curb the situation. He then called on parents, teachers, pastors, the media and other organizational leaders to help campaign for proper sanitation in the country to address the spread of diseases especially among children.