Upper West Regional Minister, Amin Amidu Sulemani has expressed concern that over 70 percent of the residents still engage in open defecation, despite efforts made in fighting the practise.

In a speech read on his behalf by the Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Dr. Musheibu Mohammed Alfa at the launch of the 10th anniversary and community durbar of a waste management company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

‘‘We must all discourage the negative practice and encourage households to have their own toilets,’’ he said.

Alhaji Sulemani urged the municipal and district assemblies in the Region to ensure that those constructing new houses include the construction of toilets in their building plans.

The Regional Minister also noted with sadness the apathy when it comes to participation in the National Sanitation Day clean-up exercise in recent times despite efforts in publicising the exercise.

He asked the people to take the cleanup exercise serious as the rainy season is close which is often characterized by the outbreak of sanitation related diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, and dysentery in the communities.

"Let us develop the consciousness to keep our environment clean and actively participate in the clean up exercise to avert the outbreak of this preventable sanitation related diseases," said Mr. Sulemani.

"Lets us also desist from indiscriminate littering of refuse in order to make our surroundings clean," he added.

Acting general manager of Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Edmund Kweku Vidjah stated that the company since its establishment has created jobs through the Public Private Partnership initiative spearheaded by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

The company currently manages a workforce of 85,000 projects across the country and 2,631are in the Upper West Region. They have also extended their services beyond the shores of Ghana to countries like Angola, Equatorial Guinea Zambia, Sierra Leone, Togo and Liberia.

Mr. Edmund paid glowing tribute to the workers of Zoomlion especially the field staff stating that their selfless, hard work on the streets and desilting of drains in the communities is what has made Zoomlion, a continental giant in waste management.