Saeed, GNA
Akatsi (VR), Oct. 05,
GNA – The Akatsi South District Assembly is planning to trigger more communities
in the District in a bid to be declared an Open Defecation Free (ODF) District.
The Assembly ranks
highest, both regional and national, in the Government of Ghana (GoG)-United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) interim Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS)
report, having declared 16 communities with 236 households ODF.
GoG-UNICEF is
implementing a behavioral change strategy in the form of a social norm to
improve sanitation and hand washing behaviours, based on CLTS as the primary
strategy that recognises the need to move from a culture of dependence, based
on subsidies, to a behavioural change approach where people choose to stop open
defecation.
During a media
interaction with key players in the District and some communities on their
success story, Mr. Nathaniel Dzadey, the District Coordinating Director, said
“we owned the programme” and supported the implementation with logistics.
He said with funding
from UNICEF, they were able to trigger ten additional communities for the last
quarter of this year and expressed the hope to do more with additional funding.
Mr. Dzadey said to
ensure the success of the programme; the Assembly enforced its sanitation
bye-laws and fined four people this year.
Mr. Emmanuel Adei,
Communication Consultant, UNICEF, advised the Assembly to employ the services
of the mass media to trigger more communities to be ODF.
He said the message
must go beyond community entries to the people wanting to implement the
programme on their own.
Mr. Adei said though
ODF rode on the back of CLTS, it needed to use mass media and enforcement to
achieve the target.
In a visit to
Biedokope and Kpodokope, both farming communities and two of the declared ODF
communities, they attested to a reduction in cholera and diarrhea cases
especially among children after being declared ODF.
They said they formed
youth groups which helped households construct toilet facilities and fined
people who defecated in the open as a deterrent.
GNA