Sunyani (B/A,) Aug. 21, GNA - About 1,002,337 people from 2,640 communities in the Brong-Ahafo Region, has since 1994 benefited from the Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Project (STWSSP), as part of the past and present governments initiatives to improve the standard of sanitation in the country.

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

This was revealed 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, stated that the region had increasingly benefited from the establishment of water and sanitation facilities, from 18 percent between 1994 and 1999 to 55 percent between 1999 and 2007.

He said the French government in support of the government of Ghana to improve sanitation, 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 this year and 79 percent by 2012. Mr Appiah said that the money was aimed at constructing 18 small towns pipes system, three multi village pipes system, 621 boreholes, 161 school latrines and 5,000 household latrines across the region, and is estimated to serve a population of 1,819,680 at the end of the project. He said that selection of beneficiary communities was based on the municipal and the districts assemblies' choice and that project's were underway in some communities.

Irene Mensah, National Coordinator, Photo Exhibition of the International Year of Sanitation, noted with concern that Ghana's sanitation coverage in the year 2006, stood at 10 per cent, which made the country to attain the 48th in Africa out of the 52 countries reported, and 14th out of 15 countries in West Africa, beating only Niger. She said, the report says that only 10 percent of Ghanaians have access to an improve latrines for defecation with 51 percent of Ghanaians sharing latrines, that are generally not accepted as improved facility due to the health hazards they pose. "The Millennium Development Goal (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. Irene Mensah commended the Brong-Ahafo region for the improvement made in sanitation facilities by which 79.1 percent of 2,295 household members have improved sanitation facilities. Mr Sylvester Ankomah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Environmental Health Officer, appealed to landlords to as a matter of urgency provide toilet facilities for their households to help curb the situation problems. He called on parents, teachers, pastors, the media and other organizational leaders to help campaign for proper sanitation in the country to address the infection of some diseases especially among children. 21 Aug. 08