A total of 138 communities in the Upper West Region have been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) from January to June 2019, bringing the total number of ODF communities in the Region to 674.

All the 88 communities in the Nandom District were ODF whilst 156 out of 227 communities in the Wa West District were also ODF; Nadowli/Kaleo had 103 of its 141 communities being ODF while 78 out of 105 communities in the Daffiama/Bussie/Issa (DBI) were ODF.

The rest were Lawra Municipal, 71 out of 94; Wa East District 48 out of 138; Lambussie District 45 out of 58; Jirapa Municipal 37 out of 116; Sissala West District 31 out of 55; Sissala East 10 out of 59; and Wa Municipal Seven out of 86 communities were ODF.

The Upper West Regional Coordinating Council, Municipal and District Assemblies, as well as other stakeholders and partners in the sanitation sector, had set 2021 for the Region to attain ODF status ahead of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target of 2030.

Mr Alhassan Inusah Agambire, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the Upper West Regional Environmental Health and Sanitation Department, revealed this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Wa on Tuesday.

He said the achievement within the period was not encouraging and attributed it to the indifferent attitude of some community folks to sanitation issues.

He added that even though rains had set in, it could not be a justification for the poor results of the ODF campaign.

“The RBF has given opportunity to the districts to enter into more communities. Funding is not a problem but some communities are not complying, they don’t even show concern when we go there,” Mr Agambire noted.

He, however, said the department was not relenting on its efforts to ensure that the Region attained ODF status by 2021, and appealed to the community folks to embrace the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) concept and to refrain from defecating in the open.