Madam Salomey Yeboah, the Agotime-Ziope Area Programmes Manager, World Vision Ghana, has called on residents to put in measures to keep their surroundings clean.
It was important that every household in the district had a safe latrine to avoid open defecation, which impacted negatively on the health and safety of community members, she said.
Madam Yeboah said maintaining a safe environment and underground water were necessary to prevent sanitation-related illnesses to ensure healthy and productive living.
She said due to insufficient sanitation systems underground water continued to be contaminated, posing health challenges to the people, thus, the need for all to have safe latrines at home.
Madam Yeboah said this in a speech read on her behalf at a programme organised by World Vision Ghana to mark this year’s World Toilet Day at Segbale, a farming community in the Agotime-Ziope District of the Volta Region.
The programme aimed to drive home the need for every household to have a toilet facility to keep the environment safe and encourage all to join the campaign against open defecation.
Madam Emilia Emefa Adzimah, the District Chief Executive, said open defecation was a major health issue in the district and asked the people to refrain from it.
She commended World Vision Ghana for its continued collaboration with the Assembly to provide social amenities in the district to transform the lives of the people.
The DCE, in a speech, read on her behalf, said achieving open-defecation- free required a collective action adding; “It is the individual actions that would make our collective efforts worthwhile and bring about the desired results.”
Madam Adzimah said the Assembly continued to inspect homes and those who failed to construct a toilet facility would be prosecuted, adding it was not a luxury but a necessity of life.
“We need our youth especially to be strong and healthy to contribute to the socio-economic development of our dear district and Ghana as a whole,” she said and urged the people to be up and doing in keeping their surroundings clean at all times.
Mrs Stella Kumedzro, the Volta Regional Environmental Health Officer, asked religious and traditional authorities to encourage their people to have safe latrines at home to protect them against sanitation-related diseases.
She said sanitation was a shared responsibility and urged them to join the campaign against open defecation to protect the environment and the health of the people.
This year’s celebration was on the theme: “Making the Invisible Visible.”
