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Ahad, 24 November 2013

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In East <b>Akim</b>, community residents mark World Toilet Day with <b>...</b>

Posted: 20 Nov 2013 06:37 AM PST

Community residents and leaders from 20 communities from around East Akim Municipality gathered at Aboabo community to mark World Toilet Day.  Every year on Tuesday, 19th November marks World Toilet Day worldwide. The Ghana WASH Project, with support from the East Akim Municipal Assembly, organized a durbar to celebrate the day. The event brought together surrounding communities to celebrate the momentous occasion.

The celebration began with the formation of the "world's longest toilet queue," where community members of the communities lined up one after another to use a household latrine. After "using" the latrine, each person modeled proper handwashing behavior, using soap and running water to clean their hands. The action of creating a queue was meant to bring attention to the poor sanitation situation faced by most of these communities before the GWASH project commenced the construction of latrines.

Felix Amofa, the GWASH Sanitation Coordinator, gave the welcome address. He commended the communities for the support they have given to GWASH for the entire four years and asked them to continue the good work: "The GWASH Project has played a small part in providing 42 latrines in Aboabo and Dademantse, with additional five latrines to come. We have initiated more than 800 household latrines across 20 communities in East Akim, with 753 completed. We are continuing our work here, including having distributed materials for another 123 household latrines to be constructed in your municipality."

Amofa pointed out that even more than GWASH support, the community's own initiative is a critical factor in improving sanitation in Aboabo. "It is your own attitudes and examples that will spread this impact, that will ensure long term progress in Aboabo and beyond, and that will inspire your peers and neighbors to follow your example" Amofa said.

Mr. Appiah Korang from the Environmental Health Department in the Municipal Assembly delivered a speech on behalf of the Municipal Chief Executive. "We want an ODF [open defecation-free] status," he said. "We want a situation whereby you will visit a community and you will not find feces left in the open. Whether it is the feces of any animal or human being, we don't want to see it. That is why we are celebrating this day today worldwide."

Mr. Korang continued: "We also know GWASH has done a lot, but their project is coming to end. Right now you all know the importance of having latrines. ODF has been attained by 11 communities out of the 15, so if we continue on this note, next year Koforidua will even come and join us, and the celebration will be spreading. So if GWASH has come to pave the way, please let's not waste their efforts. If the latrine gets full and nobody has come to offer you help, you need to take the initiative and do it yourselves."

The program also included experience sharing by communities, where those who had benefitted from GWASH household latrine support and those who had been triggered through the project (but had not received latrines) recounted their positive experiences.

Francis Amenyo, a community member from the nearby community of Payasie, had this to share: "We have really learnt a lot," he said. "We know that if our pits get full, we will be able to dig it ourselves. We shall dig it very deep so that it doesn't get filled up too quickly. Also, we shall build it in such a way that houseflies will not have access to it, even if we do not have money to buy iron rods and cement to build the superstructure. We shall find ways and means of covering it so that houseflies do not enter. We shall also use wood that doesn't rot to cover the pit. If the pit is deep, the feces will not smell and it will not attract houseflies too. We will even use bamboo to build up a structure around it."

Vida Adu Ayisi from the community of Bediase gave her own contribution: "Now we know that it is not just cement or money that we need to build latrines. GWASH has trained some men in the communities who are ready to dig the pits for us. All they need is for you to identify a location where you want the latrine sited. They will come and dig the pit for you and use bamboo to cover the latrine."

Felix Amofa also shared what he had seen in the community of Kwame Pare, a small rural community in the Aowin Suamin District of Western Region. "We used CLTS [community-led total sanitation principles] to trigger them, and we were amazed at the result," he said.

In the community, everyone who had a traditional pit latrine built a superstructure on top. For those whose latrines already had superstructures, the residents used netting to cover the existing gaps around the structure, which would prevent houseflies from entering the latrine. Those who did not have the money to build a superstructure on top of their latrine bought nets to cover the latrine, also to prevent flies from entering. In some cases, they also used wood to cover the pit.

"When I saw that, I was very happy," Amofa told the crowd. "This shows that the knowledge to keep our latrines clean, to prevent houseflies from entering the latrines and from stepping on our foods is already in us."

Asana Iddrisu, the GWASH CLTS Agent stationed in Eastern Region, also motivated the community residents and leaders at the durbar, challenging them to move beyond the basic level of ODF status to a more sustainable level.

"Please sustain this project," she said. "Do not let me come back in few years and come and meet a worse situation. Move the ODF level from the basic level to a more sustainable level. Even without GWASH or the government of Ghana, make sanitation something you would want to pursue as a community."
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