There is looming public health crisis at Santasi Apire, a suburb of Kumasi in the Kwadaso Municipality as unavailability of public toilet in the area forces residents to openly defecate.
Recounting the situation on Akoma FM’s current affairs and political show GhanAkoma Thursday, January 19, 2023, one of the residents who identified herself as Boadiwaa explained that because there are no public toilets at Apire “some of us who do not have toilets in our homes resort to nearby bushes and other areas. This morning I got myself a polythene bag, eased myself in it and wrapped it into the dustbin. My two kids also follow suit. This has been our daily ordeal since there are no other options, the situation is very dire.”
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“Sometimes most of us who cannot ease ourselves in the bushes have to walk over twenty minutes to nearby Ampatia to use their public toilets so we are really suffering. We want immediate solution to this mess because there is a looming public health disaster lingering if the rains sets off,” she lamented.
Meanwhile Assembly member for Apire electoral area Baafour Awuah who later joined the conversation revealed that the former Member of Parliament for Kwadaso Dr Samiu Kwadwo Nuamah built a toilet facility for the electoral area but couldn’t commission before he left office.
This he said has resulted in the lackadaisical attitude of the incumbent MP Dr Kingsley Nyarko and the Municipal Chief Executive contributing immensely to the sanitation plights of Apire residents.
The abandoned toilet facility according to the Assembly Member is almost 95 per cent complete.
“With just the solar panel installation if done, the facility can be operational but I have been going up and down pushing harder to complete the project but it seems the Assembly doesn’t care,” he lamented.
Until the Kwadaso municipality sees the need to complete the abandoned Apire toilet facility, residents will continue to openly defecate and cause outbreak of cholera and other public health crises which will delay Ghana’s commitment to attain Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) six which enjoins member states to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
By Nana Asenso-Mensah|AkomaFM|Onuaonline
