The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has decided to ban the use of pan latrines in the Accra metropolis by 2010. Consequently, the AMA has made available toilet construction facilities to be accessed at subsidised fees by those interested in converting their pan latrines into KVIPs or water closets. The Chief Environmental Health Officer of the Metro Public Health Department, Mr Divine Sappor, mentioned the construction of water closets with built-in overhead tanks as one of the facilities. Besides, he said, 4,200 PVC pipes from septic tanks would be connected to the main sewers in the metropolis. That, Mr Sappoi said, was under the Accra Sewerage Project funded by the African Development Bank (ADB). He said the assembly would put up 1,500 toilet facilities (KVIP and water closet) under the Urban Environmental Sanitation Project II, and indicated that the project ends in 2010. Mr Sappor urged pan latrine owners in the metropolis to access the facility to convert their pan latrines into KVIPs or water closets before the 2010 deadline. Failure to comply with the directive, he said, would lead to the prosecution of the owners of pan latrines after 2010. Mr Sappor said the decision to ban the use of pan latrines was to restore sanity in the use of toilet facilities in the metropolis. Besides, he said, the proposed ban was to protect people against the stench emanating from pan latrines and the consequent contraction of diseases. In February, this year an Accra-based Lawyer, Mr Agyei Ampofo, initiated legal action against the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) for the continued use of latrine boys. The court asked the AMA to phase out the use of pan latrines and to give a time frame by which time this practice would come to an end. The use of pan latrines has come under severe criticism of late with many describing the use of latrine boys to dispose of human waste as inhuman and a violation of the human rights of the latrine boys. Source: Daily Graphic