Putting Ghana on the world tourism map: basics first!
While Tourism Minister Catherine Afeku is deciding where to begin with her determination to put Ghana firmly on the world tourism map, I would like to suggest that she should start with the basics: championing the availability of decent toilets at tourist sites and rest stops along Ghana’s highways.
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Recently, Mrs Afeku has been in the news assessing the country’s tourist destinations old and new, as well as discovering exciting new sites and possibilities. However, to my mind it should be first things first but so far I haven’t heard any mention of places of convenience, washrooms or toilets.
Of course the simple explanation could be that it’s because as a people we hesitate to talk about such matters in public, a cultural ‘no-no’. Maybe we’re expected to assume that washrooms are part of the plans.
However, although Culture is part of her remit, the crisis situation we’re in rules out squeamishness or niceties, euphemisms or taflatse or sébe in the plural. To put it bluntly, it’s a fact that the toilets in most of the country’s public places are simply awful; sheer punishment for anybody who is used to better conditions.
Much as I admire the apparent zeal of Mrs Afeku, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts and her evident knowledge of the terrain, to me there’s little point trying to promote domestic tourism and target the international leisure traveller to our shores if we can’t even offer them respectable places of convenience outside their hotels – and, notably, if they travel outside Accra or other urban areas they may visit. I’m of course assuming that hotel inspectors of the tourism sector are ensuring the maintenance of high sanitary standards in the hotels.
Travellers on the Accra-Kumasi route were lucky that the Linda Dor Highway Rest Stop at Bunso Junction emerged on the scene years ago. Linda Dor has made the drive to Kumasi less stressful for those unable to keep mother nature in check for the four or five hour journey, or until they get to their destination.
Interestingly, a couple of years ago, Linda Dor was joined by a similar facility close by and I wondered why that one could not have been sited farther away from Bunso Junction, to give travellers another washroom opportunity, if needed.
As it is, between Bunso Junction and Kumasi there is no similar facility and although fuel stations are supposed to have washrooms that travellers can use, the less said about their sanitary condition the better. Also, seemingly, not all passengers, or even commercial drivers, know that fuel stations are supposed to offer that service. That is why travellers in need mostly decide they have no choice but to go into the bushes, with all the danger which that entails, not to mention the environmental issues.
But if the Linda Dor is the travellers’ haven on the Accra – Kumasi route, what about other highways? I know that from Kumasi to Sunyani there is nothing like that – unless maybe one has recently sprung up there.
Similarly, other important, busy roads, including the Accra – Cape Coast; the Kumasi – Tamale; the Accra – Aflao, have nothing like the Linda Dor. It’s no secret that toilet facilities at most of Ghana’s tourist sites are in a shocking state – and, reportedly, some even don’t have any. I’ve never understood why this situation has not been seen as a serious drawback to the country’s tourism objectives.
With so many other better managed destinations, which foreign visitor will knowingly choose to spend their hard-earned money to visit a country where clean toilets, or their availability, cannot be guaranteed either on the highways or at tourist sites? And that’s not even touching on the diseases which plague a country with improper sanitation.
No matter how many attractions our country has to offer tourists, it certainly doesn’t enhance the country’s profile when it is on record, as was recently cited by international sources, that the “toilet access rate in Ghana currently stands at 15 per cent, among the lowest in the world”. Surely, this is not a league table where Ghana’s name should be found.
Even if some of the hotels outside the regional capitals have good toilets, what about when a visitor is en route to a tourist destination and needs to use a washroom?
My thinking is that it should be possible for the Ministry of Tourism to facilitate private investment in the building of rest stops on all the highways, perhaps using a standard design approved by the Ministry and stakeholders.
I have in mind a simple model, consisting of toilets, urinals, a snack bar or eatery; and a seating area where regular motorists and passengers, as well as tourists, can take a break before continuing their journey.
And I hasten to add that, hopefully, the urinals for women will be women-friendly, designed with the anatomy of a woman in mind. The sort of urinals for women at some public places make one wonder if those who built or approved that construction have any idea how women urinate, or indeed if they know the physical structure of the female.
Apart from the obvious benefit to tourists and other road users, additionally, the rest stops would provide employment for many people in the localities.
Providing toilets at public places and along the highways could also be a major plank in Ghana’s sanitation campaign as well as the ongoing national offensive against open defecation.
My other suggestion for consideration is that while the Tourism Ministry and its agencies take care of tourist sites and construction of highway rest stops, each ministry could ensure the provision of toilets in the institutions under it. And of course the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources should have a central role in this proposal.
That way, with ministers and department tackling the provision of toilets in their sphere, it will be possible for Ghana to emerge as a concerned country and one with a civilized approach to sanitation, thus taking our country out of the global statistics of shame.
Ghana’s disgraceful sanitation situation needs immediate remedial action befitting the country’s status, and also to complement the nation’s tourism agenda.