Youth to storm Flagstaff House

Residents of Mepe in the North Tongu District of the Volta region, Today can report, are planning to storm the seat of government, Flagstaff House, on Thursday, September 17, 2015 to present a petition to President John Dramani Mahama over what they describe as the “failure of the North Tongu District Assembly to manage sanitary and hygiene conditions of the people in the area.”

The youth in Mepe Traditional Area have told this paper that the move has become necessary because they feel they should carry their problem directly to President John Dramani Mahama since that is the only way to change the status quo in their community as far as sanitation was concerned.

The youth bemoaned the failure of the North Tongu District Assembly headed by Madam Delphi Fafa Agbayi to allocate funds for the dislodging of faecal matter and the renovation of the eleven existing public toilet facilities in Mepe township.

They claimed the facilities were completely filled-up to their capacities and needed urgent attention.

The youth indicated that they were also unhappy at the decision by the District Chief Executive (DCE), District Coordinating Director and District Finance Officer to release GHC1000.00 (One Thousand Ghana Cedis) from the North Tongu MP’s Common Fund on Tuesday, July 28, 2015 to Mepe Dzagbaku Development Committee to execute its existing private toilet facility project.

The private toilet facility, they averred, was “not bringing any revenue to the Assembly and Mepe Traditional Area as a whole.”

The youth provided a documentary proof of a cheque of GHC1000.00 dated July 28, 2015 which was to be cashed at the National Investment Bank (NIB), Ho branch, and also the MP’s Common Fund Disbursement Request Form which certified that the disbursement request was for the execution of the above-mentioned project which was dully approved in the budget of North Tongu District Assembly to the Dzagbaku Development Committee to support their claims.

The payment of the money to Dzagbaku Development Committee to execute its existing private “commercially viable toilet facility project,” the youth told Today, has become a subject of agitation between the organised youth groups in Mepe and the Assembly, as the youth stressed that the action of the Assembly was in violation of the Local Government Act 462.

They contended that the Assembly in 2014 promised the chiefs and people of Mepe Traditional Area to allocate funds from the North Tongu MP’s Common Fund to construct or renovate existing toilet facilities in Mepe and its adjoining communities in the district which were in horrible state, but the Assembly could not keep to that promise.

Aside from the numerous petitions and letters written to the Assembly and copied to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service (GHS) over the deplorable state of the eleven existing public toilet facilities in Mepe, the gestures, hey claimed, seemed to have fallen on death ears of the state sanitation regulatory agencies to do the right thing.

The residents asserted that they now find themselves in crisis as it has been “too unbearable to contain the stench emanating from various public toilets in Mepe township.”

That worrying development, the youth noted, has compelled the organised youth groups and residents to storm the Flagstaff House to present a petition to President Dramani Mahama for help to save the eleven existing public toilet facilities in the community which are nearing collapse.

What even annoys them was the media spin the officials of the North Tongu District Assembly and NDC government spokespersons put on the issue to paint a different picture to the public to redeem government’s image.

Put up in 1996 by former President, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings administration, the youth lamented that the facilities which served as places of convenience for the increasing population of the Volta regional town have not seen any rehabilitation works.

Consequently, the youth said the facilities have developed deep cracks raising fears among the residents about the possible collapse of the toilet facilities.

But despite that fear, the youth pointed out that, the residents were still making use of the facilities due to the non-availability of places to attend to nature’s call.

Today gathered that now those who fear the looming danger have however resorted to defecating on the floors of the facilities deterring others from using them.

The alarming situation, they pointed out, attests to the fact that, poor sanitation and waste management remained the most challenging issue facing residents of North Tongu constituency.

The youth also observed that, the nature of the toilet facilities accounted for the increasing number of open defecation cases in the area as people who were dissatisfied with the unhygienic state of the public toilets now go to beaches and bushes to ease themselves.

The youth of Mepe noted that, that irresponsible act was not only limited to children, but also adults were equally engaging in open defecation, citing “Battor, Aveyime, Dorfor, Volo Kpordoe, Fordzoku, Torgorme, Juapong, Dodikope,Dadome-Fakpoe, Workpor, Dorfor-Adidome, Abuvienu,Aglobakpo and Volor as places for the practice of open defection.”

At Mepe, Battor and Aveyime in broad daylight, Today observed that residents publicly defecated in bushes because the public toilets were completely filled-up to their capacities.

Many of the homes, Today visited recently in the above-mentioned areas, showed that either they did not have toilets, or used the banned pan latrines.

Today in collaboration with some key stakeholders conducted a survey in some communities in the district, which revealed that most of the homes in the North Tongu District did not have toilets and bathroom facilities, thus compelling residents to use certain public places such as the beaches, public commentaries, gutters, parks and other open spaces as places of convenience and bathrooms.

The study further revealed that such situations were often found in sprawling poor communities, which have dense populations and are not well planned.

Some people Today interviewed blamed landlords for converting toilets and washrooms into rooms for rental, and North Tongu District Assembly for not being proactive enough to hold homes and shop owners without toilets accountable.

Although the central government made an effort to build a number of toilets in some communities in the district, the fact still remained that if people were not compelled to build toilet facilities in their homes, and landlords were not held responsible for the absence of such facilities, then people would continue to soil the environment.

Today’s findings revealed that the state-owned schools including Mepe Presbyterian Primary, District Authority (DA) JHS, Mepe RC Primary and JHS lacked essential amenities that could have helped in enhancing teaching and learning in the area.

This paper gathered that many of these schools were built over two decades ago under the erstwhile Jerry John Rawlings administration and have since not seen any major facelift.

During the visit, it was also discovered that whilst some of the public schools had toilets, they lacked water systems.

Some students and teaching staff told this reporter that the development had compelled them to defecate in the bushes.

In an interview with Today, some chiefs and religious leaders in Mepe pointed accusing fingers at the authorities of the North Tongu District Assembly for the poor condition of toilets in the area.

According to them, unsanitary conditions, typical of many public school toilets in the area, send the wrong message to students about the measures put in place by state officials and North Tongu District Assembly to improve sanitation and hygiene conditions of the people in the area.

They urged President Mahama-led administration to develop innovative measures to salvage the situation now before it gets out of hands since innocent lives were at risk of suffering from infectious diseases as a result of negligence and recklessness of the authorities of the Assembly.