The construction phase of the Sanitation and Water Project in Kumasi began on Friday as a major highlight of the national commemoration of World Toilet Day on the theme "Valuing Toilets".

Part of the reason is that open defecation remains endemic in the Garden City of West Africa.

Other parts of the country successfully reduce and possibly end open defecation, but there seems not to be a clear plan for Greater Kumasi.

A recent study by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources indicates that 51% of the population do not have any form of toilet facility. In comparison, 6% of the ones that have toilets are non-functional.

Many residents use unclean and unhygienic public toilets, while some have to queue for minutes before accessing them.

This means that the rest who cannot resist the stench on public toilets or queue to access, therefore, resort to open defecation.

Meanwhile, Media Coalition Against Open Defecation (M-CODe) has applauded government's ability to secure funding to expand the successful GAMA Sanitation and Water Project to the city.

"This situation is not befitting of the second-largest city in Ghana and the one-time Garden City," Emmanual Addai, Convener of M-CODe, said. 

He says the lack of toilets at homes in Greater Kumasi affects the respect and dignity that the people of Kumasi deserve.

The government has absorbed up to 70% of the cost of a decent household toilet. The project targets 30,000 toilets over the next three years.

M-CODe encourages every qualified household to seize the opportunity.

“Every city or town in Ghana would wish to have this opportunity, so if Kumasi has been chosen today, the choice is theirs to take now,” says Mr Addai, Convener of M-CODe.

M-CODe further commends the GAMA Project Staff, whose creativity, selflessness and professionalism led to successful project implementation in Accra, providing lessons and justification for replication in other places in the country.

It, however, recommends that government take further steps to secure more funding to extend the project in other cities as soon as possible.

"This is because cities and larger communities have proven to be the most difficult when it comes to fighting open defecation.

For the fight against open defecation to succeed, therefore, government must persistently provide similar opportunities such as the GAMA and GKMA Sanitation and Water Projects in every city," Mr Addai indicated.

Adding that, "this way, while the Rural Sanitation Model is gaining grounds in rural settlements, urban settlements would not be left out."

M-CODe is committed to closely monitoring how GKMA project implementation unfolds and is supporting its successful implementation through media promotion and visibility.

The Media Coalition Against Open Defecation (M-CODe) is an inter-institutional effort to fight open defecation in whatever form and promote household toilets in Ghana.

This is against the background that open defecation is the cause of most preventable OPD cases in the country and the leading cause of cholera, typhoid, and many other diarrheal illnesses.

Formed in September 2018, M-CODe has been partnering with like-minded institutions to step up advocacy against open defecation in Ghana.