Twelve Districts out of the 26 in the Northern Region have scored zero percent in sanitation in the 2015/2016 District League Table.

The districts are Bole, Tamale Metropolis, West Gonja, Mamprugu-Moagduri, Central Gonja, Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo, Sawla-Tuna-Kalba, West Mamprusi, North-Gonja, Chereponi, Sagnarigu and Gushiegu.

The District League Table is an initiative of CDD-Ghana and UNICEF Ghana, in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, which is used as a ranking tool for measuring the level of development in each of Ghana’s districts.

It ranks districts in terms of their delivery across six key public service sectors, namely health, governance, education, security, sanitation and water.

Northern Regional Minister Salifu Saeed, addressing participants at the launch of the District League Table in Tamale, commended CDD-Ghana and UNICEF for the initiative.

According to the minister, the initiative would help MMDCEs to implement projects in their various assemblies which would help to bring development in their areas.

The minister appealed to participants from the various districts to embrace peace, stating that investors and donors can only be attracted to work in environments where peace prevails.

He encouraged the MMDCEs to work harder to perform better than their current form in the District League Table.

Paul Osei-Kuffour of CDD-Ghana said that the District League Table is for the various stakeholders to brainstorm to identify the potential reasons why they are not performing well.

He called for the need for by-laws to be created in order to make sure that the laws are enforced.

Mr Osei-Kuffour urged the chiefs, opinion leaders and residents to join the campaign for a defecation-free community.