To help avert a poor sanitation situation in the Municipality, the Bawku Municipal Assembly in the Upper East Region has handed over 20-seater toilet facilities to four communities.

The move is aimed at ending the open defecation which has become pervasive in the area.

Many homes in the Bawku Municipality have been built without toilet facilities.

Therefore residents had to make do with a few public toilet facilities which were built in the 80s and never saw any major renovations.

According to some Bawku residents, toilet facilities run by private owners are not kept clean at all times. 

For these reasons, many Bawku residents preferred to defecate in the open, rather than using these toilet facilities which they described as death traps.

This situation contributed to the municipality recording a cholera outbreak last year with three people reported to have died.

 It is against this backdrop that Bawku Municipal Chief Executive, Bukari Isaaku has handed over a 20-seater toilet facility each to four communities in the Bawku Municipality.

The communities are Kpawelga, Gingande, Sabon-Gari and Missiga.

The facilities which have water closets installed, each come with boreholes and submersible pumps.

The four projects cost a total of GHC 551, 000 and will go a long way to reduce open defecation and communicable diseases in the Bawku Municipality.

Bawku MCE, Bukari Isaaku said the Municipal assembly has also introduced a policy that will ensure that henceforth, all houses in the municipality are built with toilet facilities.

The Bawku MCE also inaugurated a sanitation committee. The committee has been tasked to among other things; ensure that the National Sanitation Day, which falls on the first Saturday of every month, is strictly observed in the Bawku Municipality.