The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Oforikrom, Hon. Anwel Ahmed Sadat, has appealed to the Government, development partners and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), particularly World Vision Ghana, to support the municipality with resources to increase household toilet coverage and eliminate open defecation in underserved communities.
According to the MCE, several communities, including Anloga, Ayigya and the Dagomba Line enclave, continue to face inadequate access to household toilet facilities despite growing public demand for improved sanitation.
He explained that although many residents had expressed interest in constructing household toilets, the assembly lacked the financial capacity to support all applicants.
“There has been a significant increase in requests for household toilet facilities, but funding remains inadequate to meet the growing demand,” he stated.
Institutional Challenges.
Hon. Sadat noted that the sanitation challenge was not limited to households, as some public institutions also lacked adequate toilet facilities.
He cited the Oforikrom Roman Catholic School, which previously had no toilet facility until the Municipal Assembly intervened to complete one for the school.
He said the Assembly remained committed to providing sanitation facilities in both homes and institutions to improve public health and environmental cleanliness.
“We are doing everything within our means to provide toilet facilities for households and institutions because sanitation is a shared responsibility,” he stressed.
Call For Increased Support.
The MCE appealed to World Vision Ghana, to collaborate with the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area (GKMA) Sanitation and Water Project, to increase financial support for household toilet construction in the municipality.
He also called on the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs to increase budgetary allocations for sanitation to enable Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to address the growing sanitation deficit.
According to him, increased investment in sanitation infrastructure would significantly improve access to household toilets and help Ghana achieve its open defecation-free targets.
Sanitation Interventions.
Hon. Sadat highlighted a number of interventions undertaken by the Assembly to improve environmental sanitation.
He disclosed that the Assembly had invested part of the sanitation component of the District Assemblies Common Fund into the construction of skip pads, the placement of eight refuse containers at strategic locations and the procurement of six tricycles to support waste collection.
Additionally, the Assembly has employed 75 sanitation workers to undertake routine street sweeping and maintain cleanliness across the municipality.
He revealed that approximately 75 per cent of the Assembly’s sanitation interventions had focused on environmental cleanliness, although access to household toilet facilities remained a major challenge in several communities.
The Assembly, he added, intends to increase the number of refuse containers from the current eight to about 50 dustbins along principal streets to further improve waste management.
M-CODE Visit.
Hon. Sadat made the appeal when the Ashanti Regional Chapter of the Media Coalition Against Open Defecation (M-CODE) paid a working visit to the Oforikrom Municipal Assembly to assess sanitation conditions and ongoing efforts to improve access to toilet facilities.
The visit forms part of an accountability initiative aimed at monitoring sanitation performance across Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, with support from World Vision Ghana.
The MCE expressed optimism that with sustained collaboration between government, development partners and local communities, Oforikrom Municipality would significantly improve sanitation standards and achieve universal access to household toilet facilities.
