Mr Joseph Yaw Donkor of the Waste Management Department (WMD) of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has hinted that the Assembly would ensure that landlords provide toilet facilities in their properties to raid the city of filth.
This he said, would be done through intensive education and sensitisation on sanitation issues.
Mr Donkor gave the assurance on Thursday at the Noda Hotel in Fumesua, near Kumasi at the 24th Mole Conference organised by the Coalition of NGOs In Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS).
Mole Conference derived its name from its first meeting held at Mole in the Northern Region and it brings all stakeholders in the sector together on how to make improvements.
This year’s four-day event, which attracted more than a hundred people from all over the Country is dubbed ‘’’’
He explained that the decision was prompted by the increased indiscriminate open defecation committed by some residents which is having effect on the health of the citizenry.
The Waste Management Officer revealed thatabout 35 per cent of the households in the area do not enjoy toiletfacilities whilst one to six per cent has either pan latrines or traditional pit latrines.
More than 300 public toilets built by the colonial masters about 60 years ago have been reduced to eight per cent but that are even inadequate and are in bad conditions shape, leading to the current sanitation problems, he stated, saying, the assembly had also supported in building a number of them in the city.
Mr Donkor stressed that it was as a result of this that the Department has sought to ensure there were toilets in every building.
However, the Officer feared that it would not succeed due to lack of legal backing, interferences by for instance ‘’the big men,’’ making personnel also uncommitted.
He therefore called on government, among others to support the move as tackling sanitation situations is a shared responsibility.
Gifty Amofa/GNA