The lack of functioning places of convenience at Adjikpo Nakuyo and Gberkormanya communities in the Eastern Region is posing a serious sanitation problem to residents there.
The condition has compelled some inhabitants to practice open defecation. Open defecation is on the rise at Gberkomanya because the only Public toilet facility in the 1000 member community has remained unusable for months as its contents have been impossible to flush out.
This is due to loads of foreign materials such as polythene bags wrapped around feces, dropped into the septic tank by visitors and users of the facility.
The toilet serves Gberkomanya and surrounding communities such as Akweteman, Akperse, and a nearby public school.
The situation has resulted in the locking up of the facility for months with residents resorting to unorthodox means to ease themselves.
Isaac Tetteh, an opinion leader described the problem. He said, “The problem we are facing with this facility is that it is very choked [and] the truck cannot convey it to where it is necessary all because we have a lot of dirt, polythene bags which contain a lot so when you even use the truck, you find it very difficult to remove it.”
He added: “It is affecting us in different ways because people start using the bushes, sometimes when you go around, [you’ll see] polythene bags.”
According to him, the situation is compounded by the fact that only a few residents have places of convenience in their homes.
Right behind the public toilet is a galley which now serves as a place for open defecation for members of the community.
Human excreta and papers used to tidy themselves were scattered several meters across the area.
Meters away from the public place of convenience and close to the place of open defecation is a mechanical fitting shop.
Kofi Adjei is a mechanic at the shop.
Kofi in an interview with GhanaWeb expressed regret at the stench and glaring health hazard posed to them and the larger community.
Describing the problem, Adjei said men and women including the aged and children could be spotted across the site, particularly at dawn and in the evenings openly easing themselves.
A red flag spotted at the scene, Adjei explained was planted there to ward off perpetrators of the act, banning defecation here.
“There’s a problem with our toilet and this has resulted in open defecation by all. The whole area is inundated with fecal matter… children, old men, and women all do it here. House flies sit on the fecal matter and then enter homes around here and land on their food,” he complained bitterly.
He added: “If you come here at dawn, you’ll observe how people line up here easing themselves in the open.”
According to him, children were falling sick indiscriminately and pleaded with the authorities to come to the aid of the community.
On his part, Asafoatse Tetteh Amoh Gbedjimah of Okper-Manaam said the situation posed a big problem for the community, particularly the old. According to him, “This toilet issue has become a very big problem for the community because it has been working for some time now but now the people who are managing it have stopped working there and therefore the aged have found it very difficult to ease themselves.”
He added that “the necessary actions should be taken” to address the problem.
The Asafoatse was worried that the practice of open defecation in the community poses an imminent danger to the people but added that this was a result of the lack of a decent place of convenience.
He noted, “Because the people can’t find any place to ease themselves that would be the next option they’ll take."
The situation at Adjikpo-Yokunya is no different as most residents, forced to live without a public place of convenience, resort to their surroundings to ease themselves.
Seyelor of Adjikpo-Yokuyo in an interview with GhanaWeb named some of the affected communities as Adjikpo-Okper, Odave, Sobontsonya, and Basaina.
According to him, the nearest place of convenience is about a kilometer away, forcing most residents without the facility in their homes to defecate in the open.
Others have also tried adopting innovative means such as manually digging a pit latrine where fowls scavenge and end up spreading the fecal matter into homes.
He pleaded with the Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly to assist the community with a toilet facility as he’s ready to provide land for the purpose.
According to a UNICEF report in 2017, Ghana loses an average of $79 million annually due to open defecation.
Ghana is classified among 34 countries with the highest open defecation rates of 15 percent and above.
Nineteen percent of the total population practices open defection daily translating into one out of every five people practicing it in the country.
The The condition of the area has compelled some inhabitants to practice open defecation