The Ho Municipal Environmental Health Department has provided training to 16 local artisans in the construction of urine divert dry toilet (UDDT).
The beneficiaries were selected from 16 Open Defecation Free (ODF) communities within the Municipality, where the UDDT project was being piloted and was awarded certificates.
The Ho Municipal Assembly with funding from the Global Dry Toilet Association, Finland, had been promoting the use of UDDT at homes and institutions in the Municipality since 2015, for a sustainable environment.
Madam Comfort Sunu, Acting Ho Municipal Environmental Health Officer, said to sustain the project and ensure its successful execution there was the need to equip people with technical knowledge.
She said the training aimed at building the capacity of the beneficiaries and equipping them with the requisite knowledge needed to facilitate and undertake the project.
The Environmental Health Officer thanked the beneficiaries for availing themselves of the training and charged them to put the knowledge acquired to good use to benefit them and society.
Madam Sunu appealed to the beneficiary communities to properly maintain the facilities to derive the maximum benefit from them to support themselves.
She underscored the importance of the project in ending open defecation and facilitating farming activities as the faecal matter could be dislodged or used as composite and the urine as urea for the cultivation of crops.
Mr Samuel Glago, Local Assistant Coordinator of the Ho-Finland Programme disclosed that a total of 56 household toilets had so far been constructed under the project.
He said six institutional ones had also been constructed with four currently under construction and at various levels of completion and commended the trainees for their zeal in championing ODF in their communities.
Mr Augustus Awity, Ho Municipal Coordinator asked the trainees to see the training as an empowerment opportunity to help them earn a living.
He urged them to serve as ambassadors for the project to let people understand the importance of the UDDT and to help end open defecation and communicable diseases.
The coordinator charged them to ensure that they execute every project given to them qualitatively and with a level of professionalism to justify their relevance.
Ms Paula Schroderus, a student at Finland Lab University of Applied Sciences said the certificates presented to the trainees indicated their capabilities and readiness to undertake any project with perfection.
Mr Divine Bosson, Ho Municipal Chief Executive appealed to the public to support the project and help end open defecation in the Municipality.
He commended the Finland government for the support and asked various stakeholders to come on board to end open defecation, saying “we cannot have fresh oxygen” if people continue to practice open defecation.
