Provision of 30,000 household toilets: Greater Kumasi assemblies urged to scale up efforts
The eight district assemblies involved in the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area (GKMA) Household Toilet programme have been urged to double up their efforts to achieve the target of providing 30,000 facilities by the end of 2024.
Advertisement
The Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area Sanitation and Water Project (GKMA-SWP) is an extension of the Greater Accra Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA-SWP) which started in 2015.
After a successful project implementation at the end of 2020, the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, with financing and technical support from the World Bank, agreed to extend the project to Greater Kumasi until the end of 2024.
Slow pace
Close to 16 months into the programme, however, only 7,086 household toilet facilities have been constructed, as against a target of 13,600, with the Ejisu Municipal Assembly leading the chart with a total of 1,533 toilets, representing 90 per cent of their monthly target.
The Ejisu Municipal Assembly is followed by the Kwadaso Municipal Assembly, which has so far constructed 949 toilet facilities, representing 56 per cent of its target, with the Suame Municipal Assembly constructing 587 toilets, which is 54 per cent, and the other municipalities operating below 40 per cent to 50 per cent of their targets.
Addressing the media at a GKMA Household Toilet Jamboree in Kumasi last Saturday, George Asiedu, the GKMA-SWP Project Coordinator, disclosed that so far, the programme had achieved 52 per cent of its target, leaving a deficit of 6,500, representing 48 per cent of the target.
He said if they were to meet their target for a three-year implementation, the project should be able to do 10,000 household toilets every year.
Support
The jamboree was, therefore, for the participating districts to engage in team building exercises to assist the eight municipalities achieve their target.
Mr Asiedu said the objective was to energise each of the assemblies to up their game towards achieving the noble objective of 30,000 household toilets.
“We are competing among ourselves; and by so doing, we are tasking and challenging ourselves with commitment and to re-strategise to achieve the goal of providing 30,000 households toilet facilities.
“We need to step up our game to be able to match up and achieve the target.
The focus is to increase the number of assembly teams,” he said.
Mr Asiedu said initially, each assembly had a 15-member team, adding, “so now we have about 50 people representing the assembly.
We will give some reward to them, hoping that at the end of the project, any assembly that is able to achieve the target would be rewarded.”
Target
The project is supposed to build an average of 850 toilets every month, but as at now, the MMDAs are unable to achieve the target, providing 450 toilets a month.
The GKMA-SWP is being implemented by the Asokore Mampong, Asokwa, Ejisu, Kumasi, Kwadaso, Oforikrom, Old Tafo, and Suame metropolitan and municipal assemblies (MMAs), which constitute the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area.
The project focuses on the promotion of 30,000 household toilets and 120 institutional toilets, as well as the extension of piped water to households, with a focus on low-income urban communities, and rehabilitation and expansion of the Asafo Sewerage System.