10 COMMUNITIES DECLARED ODF IN GARU-TEMPANE 10th March, 2016.

Ten communities in the Garu-Tempane District of the Upper East Region have been declared Open Defecation Free [ODF] under a Community-Lead Total Sanitation [CLTS] intervention by the UNICEF in collaboration with Ghana’s Ministry for Local Government and Rural Development [MLGRD].

The District’s Environmental Health Officer, Mr. Maxwell Kanwelbal made this known to the media during a field visit to Tubong and Kariyata which were among the 10 ODF declared communities. The CLTS intervention introduced in 2012, sought to enlighten and trigger target communities to adhere to and adapt best sanitation and hygiene practices and methods so as to eradicate sanitation-related diseases by stopping open defecation.

The officer further disclosed that, the Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Committee on Sanitation [RICCS] which is the body mandated with the responsibility of inspecting target communities according to laid down qualification variables, had actually certified only six of the 10 declared communities. He disclosed that the district had a total of 204 communities and gave the assurance that his office will do all it can to bring on more communities onto the intervention even after UNICEF leaves.

Interacting with members of the Tubong community, Mr. James Kojo Bukari told the media that before the CLTS intervention, they used to defecate in the open while animals fed on the human excretor and children often fell sick resulting from eating contaminated foods. He however noted that with each household now having its own pit latrine, sanitation had improved tremendously reducing the occurrence of diseases.

Upper East Deputy Regional Environmental Health Officer, Mr. Cletus Asamani revealed that the CLTS was introduced in 2012 as a sure means of getting the communities to practice ODF persuading each household to construct a simple pit latrine with an accompanying hand-washing-with-soap facility. He urged the communities to stick to the CLTS as the government had set a 2020 deadline for declaration of the country as an ODF country.

Meanwhile earlier in a media briefing, a UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene [WASH] Consultant Mrs. Ama Kudom-Agyemang called for the detachment of traditional beliefs from the phenomenon of open defecation [OD] stressing that the practice is purely a sanitation and environmental issue that needs to be tackled by all stakeholders.

She disclosed that a contest had been launched for journalists who publish in-depth and analytical reports on OD and open defecation-free [ODF] communities and whip up the interest of many more communities throughout the country to adhere to the principles and practices of ODF rather than OD which bring lots of health hazards on communities. She further noted that the practice of OD puts the people in the way of dangers such snake and scorpion bits especially during the night and early dawn.