No toilet facility, no marriage – KEEA Assembly bares teeth

The Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem municipality assembly is proposing the inclusion of toilet facilities at the home of men as a precondition for contracting marriages.

This according to the assembly’s municipal sanitation officer Alex Damptey will help deal with the alarming rate of open defecation in the area, as many homes are without toilet facilities forcing women and children especially to resort to the beaches to attend to nature’s call.

Speaking to Kasapa News Central Regional Correspondent Kwaku Baah-Acheamfour on the sidelines of a Stakeholders forum at the Assembly’s premise at Elmina in the central region aimed at addressing open defecation in the area, Mr. Alex Damptey explained that the drastic measure will help deal with the menace as every man would want to marry thereby making sure that their homes have toilet facilities.

Landlords, he added will also be pressurised to make provisions in their homes as failure to do so will make potential grooms to boycott their premises for homes with toilet facilities.

Landlords who want to stay in business, he added will be left with no option but to make provision for toilet facilities in their homes which will go a long way in ending open defecation in the beaches and other places.

He explained that the effects of open defecation transcends health problems as even it demotivates tourisms from visiting the tourists sites in the area especially the Elmina castle resulting in loss of revenue.

Already, 14 people have been fined Ghc400 each by the Elmina Circuit court for engaging in open defecation at the beaches.