An environmental and water and sanitation analyst, Kwasi Taylor Junior, has opined that the reason why Ghana is still battling with the issue of flooding and sanitation is that we lack an understanding of the issues.
He was speaking on Frontline on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm on how best the country could address the perennial flooding situation and filth in the country.
Poor sanitation, he stated, affects economic growth, delays progress and development and makes people sick.
”We lack an understanding of sanitation. Sanitation goes beyond sweeping and desilting gutters or drains,” he said.
He said we need to show commitment to improving health, reducing poverty, promoting equality and supporting socio-economic development, and one area we can explore is the issue of sanitation.
He said Ghana faces serious constraints in meeting the challenge of providing adequate and improved sanitation for its rural and urban inhabitants because there is a lack of proper planning and development.
He underscored the need for the government to put in place measures to address the issues of access to toilet facilities to address the issue of open defecation.
As at 2015, only one rural household out of ten were using improved household toilets, while three in every ten of them practised open defecation.
One other challenge he identified was the lack of effective national monitoring and evaluation systems to ethe help evaluate the policies rolled out by the government.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana