51 CERTIFIED OPEN DEFECATION FREE COMMUNITIES IN AGONA WEST
21ST NOVEMBER 2024
Stakeholders on the need to achieve ending open defecation in the Upper West Region last week launched the Regional League Table on the Open Defecation Free for the region at the Central Regional Coordinating Council, Capecoast.
The gathering hosted Traditional Rulers, MMDCEs, Coordinating Directors, Environmental Health Officers and other champions of ODF.
The league is supported by UNICEF and other implementation agencies and covers all eleven districts in the region. Agona West Municipal Assembly Topped the league table.
On the table, it was disclosed that out of the total of 1,167 communities in the region by 1st November this year, only 531 of them had attained ODF status. This represent 45.5 percent of the total population.
The ceremony also created the opportunity for best practice to be shared amongst the various Assemblies to better achieve the desired target for an ODF region.
This feat may however be the biggest challenge to succeed as five assemblies could not make a 50 percent coverage.
Of about a total population of 689,160 only 23,137 Household Latrines serve the huge number of people in the region with only 148,902 living in ODF communities, and scored 21.6 percent of the total population.
The HON. Regional Minister Hon Marigold Assan, noted that the ODF league is aimed at improving transparency and accountability in the regional development through sanitation and improvement made where targeted support is needed.
She noted that issues of sanitation deserve utmost attention as commitment to duty and change of attitudes towards work by major stakeholders is very important in achieving a total ODF in the region.
