Open defecation contributes to malnutrition among children - GHS

The Upper West Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has identified Open Defecation (OD) as a contributing factor to the malnutrition situation among children in the region.

According to the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) in 2022, 52 per cent of Ghanaians practised OD, a situation the GHS said was worrying.

Mr. Yussif Abubakari of the Nutrition Unit, Wa Municipal Health Directorate, said this in a presentation during a Regional Inter-agency Coordinating Committee on Sanitation (RICCS) meeting in Wa.

He said Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) played a major role in improving nutrition outcomes saying, “You can have good food to eat, but when there is an infection the nutrients cannot be absorbed properly.”

Data from the Environmental Health and Sanitation Department (EHSD) indicates 815 out of 1,167 communities in the region had attained Open Defecation Free (ODF) status with 13 ODF communities recorded in 2022 while no community had attained ODF status in the region in the first half of 2023.

“When there is open defecation a lot of it goes into the streams where people fetch water from, and you can get infections through that and when there are infections the absorption of nutrients within the human system is affected.

Once your system cannot absorb all the nutrients directly from the food, it means that the body will not get the required quantity of nutrients to function as required,” Mr Abubakari explained.

He indicated that children suffered the brunt of OD because they needed more nutrients to grow and once their system could not absorb it from the food due to infection resulting from OD, that would create a nutritional gap leading to undernutrition conditions such as stunting and wasting among children.

Other causes of malnutrition he mentioned were poor exclusive breastfeeding, late initiation of breastfeeding and high food insecurity, among others.

Mr. Dennis Menance Bayuo, the Upper West Regional Focal Person on WASH, observed that it was imperative for concerted efforts between stakeholders to address environmental issues to improve the health and well-being of the people in the region.

He emphasised the need for increased and well-coordinated interventions between the stakeholders to improve the sanitation situation at the community level including access to toilet facilities.

Mr. Issahaque Serikpera Naa, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Yison Tech Hub, said the Hub was working in the Nandom and Lambussie Districts in partnership with the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) to improve access to clean sanitation services in 20 communities.

The Global Communities, Vibrant Village Foundation, SNV and the Centre for Advancing Rural Opportunities (CARO)-Ghana among others also presented their interventions toward improving access to WASH in the region.