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Everybody should brighten the corner where they are!

Everybody should brighten the corner where they are!

This year’s observance of World Toilet Day in Ghana was remarkable probably only in its lack of ripple on the national consciousness. A regrettably laid-back attitude considering this country’s shameful toilet statistics.

On the other hand, maybe that was the reason for its low profile.

Admittedly, it didn’t help that this year the Day, which is marked on November 19, fell on a Sunday.

However, I doubt that it was the reason for the low-key stance. But is it any wonder?

Ahead of the event, yet another dismal set of statistics on the Ghana situation from a reputable international body shows Ghana still listed in the league of shame, as other reports in past years.

Earlier this week, a report by WaterAid, its 2017 state of the world’s toilets, put Ghana among the top 10 countries in the world with the highest percentage of their population without decent toilets – the Ghana News Agency reported.

When on November 13, President Akufo-Addo launched the National Sanitation Campaign, themed ‘let’s keep Ghana clean: Play your part’, it was music to my ears to hear him underscore specific responsibility.
 
He stated: “Every ministry, department and agency, including the seat of government, has been tasked to assign two officers, to be designated Sanitation Marshal and Deputy Marshal, to oversee compliance … of the laid down by-laws concerning sanitation … “
Not only that, the President added: “Ministers, chief executives and chief directors of government departments and agencies will be held accountable for any lapses ….”

Sanitation-wise, if everybody should brighten the corner where they are, wouldn’t that solve the problem?

However, WaterAid, a non-governmental organisation, expressed concern about funding, that “without adequate funds, the plans outlined to fight the sanitation menace may not be fully implemented.”

I wonder what advances Ghana has made, if any, in ensuring that all households have toilets, since last year’s observance of World Toilet Day.
 
Even when it comes to schools and offices, has the number of those with toilets increased? Do the authorities in schools and offices in this country make it a point to ensure the provision of washrooms, let alone decent ones?

It’s a well-known fact that with most offices if a visitor happens to have the misfortune of needing to use a toilet, it becomes a major embarrassment and disturbance for them.

There will be hurried, embarrassed consultations among the staff and it’s nearly always the case that the key to the only decent toilet is with someone else. An SOS will then have to be sent to that person to ‘bring the key!’ – as if it’s the key to a bank vault.

There is also the scandal of schoolgirls who due to lack of toilets in schools miss days of classes when in their menses, with many eventually dropping out of school altogether. Therefore, the global offensive to ensure that every house, every school and every premises has a toilet is a critical one.

In my view, the world should be eternally grateful to Singapore, that in 2013, that country had the vision, and courage, to propose the observance of a World Toilet Day.   

As I wrote in this space sometime ago: “On July 24 (2013), in response to a resolution by Singapore, the United Nations agreed to observe a ‘World Toilet Day’ every November 19. Although civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations have been observing World Toilet Day, it has not been one of the UN’s commemorative days.

“It is instructive that Singapore’s envoy, Mark Neo, is reported to have stated that he didn’t care if their ‘Sanitation for All’ resolution made people laugh because World Toilet Day highlights a serious problem: 2.5 billion people worldwide don’t have access to proper sanitation.”    

Even now, more than 60 years after Independence, in Ghana’s Golden Jubilee celebration year, and doubtless to the immense discomfiture of some of us, the media regularly publish or broadcast both the absence of, and the construction of new toilets as ‘news’. It’s instructive that they still view such reports as ‘news’.

And the ministries of Local Government and Sanitation and Water Resources should tell us: If there is a law that makes it compulsory for public venues to have toilets for the patrons, who is ensuring compliance? Also, is there any minimum standard of cleanliness those places are required to observe?

What do they propose to do about the public places, such as, lorry parks and bus terminals that have no toilets? Even if they do, some of them are so filthy that even animals would avoid them!

How can one reconcile Ghana’s standing and achievements globally, the esteem in which Ghanaians working in international organisations abroad are held, with the country’s awful toilet situation?

It’s a national disgrace that, as reported in the Daily Graphic of November 14, 2017: “About one in five Ghanaians is said to defecate in the open, amounting to five million people living without toilet facilities at home.”  

The crusade to ensure that all homes and buildings have toilets is crucial and must be pursued with the same dedication as the current war on illegal mining or ‘galamsey’.

Our dignity and well-being; and our very lives depend on access to toilets, hygienic ones. And the relevant officials must be held responsible for that.

“Ministers, chief executives and chief directors of government departments and agencies (SHOULD) be held accountable for any lapses ….”

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