Tema, Nov. 21, GNA - Mr Edward Mba, Head of Waste Management at the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) has urged landlords to provide and maint= ain decent toilet facilities for their tenants to facilitate public health. Mr Mba was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Te= ma as part of the celebration of World Toilet Day.

The day is aimed at bringing into focus the rights of the more than 2.5 billion people worldwide living without adequate toilet facilities. Mr Mba said the TMA would in future deny building permits to land developers who do not make provision for toilet facilities in their projects. He said although public toilets are constructed at market places, lo= rry stations and at other vantage points for people on transit a high number of residents at Tema New Town however depend on such facilities. Tema has about 60 public toilets of which 29 are located at Tema New=

Town, six each at Kpone and Community One Site One; five at Site Two, Thr= ee at Oyibi and two at Sakumono.

Communities Two, Five, Seven, Eight and Nine have one public toilet each with Community One Market boasting of four. He said the TMA has handed over the provision, operation and managem= ent of public toilets in the Metropolis to private companies and individuals. Mr Mba warned people residing near Bankuman Beach and Zingi Shore at=

Tema New Town to desist from defecating at the beaches. He said faecal matter was the source of the spread of communicable diseases including typhoid, cholera and intestinal worms.