Bolgatanga, Dec.18, - Naba Baba
Salifu Alemyaarum, Paramount Chief of the Bongo Traditional Area has said the
taking away some powers of chiefs to prescribe and punish deviants in society
had contributed to wanton Open Defecation (OD) in the country.
He noted that Chiefs could no
longer enact or institute common laws to punish to deter recalcitrant people in
society because Ghana had failed woefully to recognise and empower Chiefs to
utilize their offices in bringing discipline to society.
The Paramount Chief said this at
the launch of the region’s Social Norms Campaign, dubbed, “open defecation free
Ghana”, and indicated that the failure to recognise Chiefs as instruments for
discipline “contributed to the persistence of problems as they could not punish
or enact laws to compel people to build toilets in their homes”.
He therefore appealed to
government to give chiefs some powers to punish people who practised open
defecation within their jurisdictions to facilitate the eradication of the
phenomenon.
Alhaji Mahmoud Zorkor, Chief
Director at the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council who represented the
Upper East Regional Minister charged Municipal and District Chief Executives in
the region to step up efforts to meet their Open Defecation Free (ODF) targets
by 2019.
As part of steps to eliminate the
practice, the Chief Director warned that agencies and institutions responsible
for allocation of building permits to estate developers to be strict in
enforcing laws on the provision of toilet facilities before granting landlords
the rights to commence construction.
He said Open Defecation was
partly responsible for some of the ailments reported at health facilities in
the region and noted that poor health conditions of the citizenry and their
attendant challenges affected development in the region and entreated people to
stop open defecation.
The programme was attended by
Chief Executives of Bawku, Binduri, Pusiga and representatives from the
Kasena-Nankena Municipality and the Kassena-Nankana West District.
Mr Charles Nachinab an official
of UNICEF said the launch was an integral part of the National Sanitation
Campaign launched on 13th of November by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-
Addo and expressed gratitude to the government of Canada and the kingdom of the
Netherlands for their contributions and support for the ODF social norms
campaign.
He urged all stakeholders and
policy makers to help eradicate the OD phenomenon by enforcing by-laws and
other policies set by the various agencies in order to achieve the target set
for the region to be open defecation free.
A documentary dubbed “the world
is not your toilet” was shown to the participants and Ghana ranked 7th worst in
the world in the use of toilets according to the Ghana Demographic report of
2014.
The country loses about $79
million annually because citizens failed to have toilets in their homes,
according to the Demographic report.
GNA
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