Ghana’s sanitation has 'improved', I’ve built 13,800 toilets, reduced ‘free-ranging’ – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Akufo-Addo has said his government, over the past three years, has improved Ghana’s sanitation situation.

Delivering his fourth State of the Nation Address to Parliament on Thursday, 20 February 2020, the President said: “Mr Speaker, we are seeing an improvement in the quality of our nation’s sanitation, even though we still have a lot more to do”.

Buttressing his claim with evidence, he said according to the Northern Regional Environmental Health Unit, in the three regions up north, (Savannah, North East and Northern), “the number of Open Defaecation-Free Communities (ODF) has increased from five per cent (5%) as of June 2016 to some fifty-eight (58%) as of July 2019”.

“The latest data from the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources shows that ODF communities in Ghana, as a whole, have increased from four hundred and ten (410) in 2016 to over five thousand (5,000) communities”, he asserted.

“Now, that is progress, and it did not just happen, it took hard work, commitment and the provision of infrastructure”, the President noted.

He said in fulfilment of the governing party’s manifesto commitment of “toilets for all”, “we have built thirteen thousand, eight hundred (13,800) toilets, which is largely responsible for this development”.

“Mr Speaker, we have not stopped building toilets, we will build more”.