AMA gives ultimatum on use of pan latrines

Accra, May 24, GNA - The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has given landlords in the Accra Metropolis two years' ultimatum to, either convert their pan latrines into water closet or KVIP by the year 2010 or face prosecution.

Mr. Devine Dornu Sappor, Chief Environmental Health Officer of Metropolitan Public Health Department of the AMA who gave the warning on Wednesday said, dumping into public, drains, open spaces and the carrying of the toilets itself is dehumanizing and the spread of contagious disease hence the need to phase it out in the system. He said the abolition itself is a way of controlling those diseases while the AMA has also made some times available under the Urban Environmental sanitation project II (UESP) as the assembly hopes to construct 1,500 toilets from the project fund.

Under the UESP project which was going to be funded by the African Development Bank (ABD), landlords would have the opportunity to access subsidized facilities for the conversion of pan latrines into water closets with in-built overhead tanks or KVIPs while undertaking 4200 connections of PVC pipes from homes to the main sever lines of the metropolis under the Accra sewerage project. Mr. Sappor advised the landlords in the metropolis still using pan latrines to take advantage of the facilities available to avoid arrest and prosecution after the year 2010.