Gov't contracts loan to fight open defecation

Government has contracted a 60 million dollar World Bank facility to assist households throughout Ghana to build their own latrines, as a measure to reduce open defecation in communities.

The loan, which is under the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) programme, would encourage individual households to build their own latrines while the bank later pays back the cost, Mr. Edwin Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development announced at Funsi in the Wa East District.

Mr. Vanderpuye announced this at Funsi. He is touring communities and meeting with traditional rulers and other stakeholders as part of preparation for the eighth edition of the National Sanitation Day exercise in the Upper region which comes on July 4.

He said the Local Government Ministry was preparing a bill, which parliament would pass into law to make open defecation an offence and punishable.

He said the disbursement of the loan would be done through the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies with emphasis on the three regions in the north, Brong-Ahafo and Volta Regions, where open defecation was a challenge.

According to Mr. Vanderpuye, households were required to obtain permits from the district assemblies’ environmental units and the Environmental Protection Agency to benefit from the facility.

The Deputy Minister announced Fidelity Bank would also sponsor the construction of a 20,000 household latrines throughout Ghana while one million waste bins would be distributed to institutions and individuals to manage waste.

Mr. Caesar Kale, a Presidential Staffer and some official from the Local Government Ministry are accompanying the Deputy Minister on his tour.