Over 20 million people, representing about 87 per cent of Ghanaians, do not have improved household toilets, according to the 2010 figures released by the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate (EHSD) of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD).

The figures also show that 51 per cent, representing over 12 million of the country's population, share toilet facilities with their neighbours while 20 per cent, representing about five million people do not have any form of toilet facility in their homes and therefore practice open defecation, thereby posing a health hazard.

Mr Kweku Quansah, Programmes Officer of the EHSD of MLGRD, announced the figures in a paper at a day's annual review workshop on Community-Led Total Sanitation/School-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS/SLTS) organized by Plan Ghana, an international child-centred community development organization in Accra on Wednesday.

The workshop brought together officials of Plan Ghana and local organizations engaged by Plan Ghana to implement the CLTS/SLTS concept.

It was to share experiences as well as consolidate activities or reports of the local implementers over the previous year to incorporate them into the national strategy towards addressing environmental sanitation in the communities.

Mr Amsalu Negussie and Ms Sharon Rose, representatives of Plan Kenya and Plan Netherlands respectively, also attended the workshop.

CLTS/SLTS is a community-owned initiative aimed at sensitizing, and creating the platform for communities to take up the responsibility to construct their own toilets to eliminate indiscriminate defecation in the environment to ensure safety.

Plan Ghana, in partnership with its local programme implementers such as TREND Group, Pronet North, Water Vision, ADSEN Consult, RUWSS, is currently piloting the concept in 42 communities: nine each in Wa and Tumu, and eight each in Bawjiase, Hohoe and Asesewa programme areas.

Mr Quansah, whose topic was "Capacity Building of Stakeholders to Promote CLTS/SLTS in Ghana", said despite ongoing efforts, sanitation coverage in the country in terms of every household building owning its own toilet facilities, improved by only three per cent in five years, from 10 per cent in 2005 to 13 per cent in 2010.

He said to reverse the trend the EHSD of the MLGRD had reviewed its environmental sanitation policy and recommended the adoption of the CLTS/SLTS concept to ensure that every household had access to the facility for their own safety.

Mr Quansah added that the CLTS/SLTS had the potential to propelling the country to achieving the Millennium Development Goal on sanitation by the 2015 deadline.

He called on Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to incorporate the CLTS/SLTS concept into their agenda to ensure that communities were open defecation-free, and that all the people used or defecated in toilets rather than in the open environment.

Mr Samuel Paulos, Country Director of Plan Ghana, who opened the workshop, commended other partners including Plan Netherlands and WaterAid for their keen involvement in the programme, expressing the hope that this would ensure its success since all would bring their experiences to bear on it.

Mr Paulos said the review report would be presented at a Pan-African forum in Ethiopia in February, where all eight African countries implementing the concept would meet to consolidate their country reports.

He said Plan Ghana would use the report for a massive advocacy exercise to get governmental authorities to be seriously involved in the programme to ensure safety for all, especially children and women.

Mr Paulos noted that sanitation involved a lot of planning and gave the assurance that Plan Ghana would continue to support local implementing agencies to ensure the success of the concept.

Source: GNA