The World Toilet Day is observed every 19th of November with the focus of stakeholders on issues surrounding sanitation, particularly Human waste and how the management of these issues could be dealt with to ensure access.
The World Toilet Day has always been about inspiring action to tackle global sanitation crisis, as there has been practical consensus that sanitation is no longer a problem but has reached a crisis stage.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were launched in 2015, require for everyone to have access to a safely-managed household toilet by 2030. This action is expected to help in the eradication of poverty.
The World Toilet Day was officially designed to be commemorated on November 19 by the United Nations General Assembly.
This was done in 2013.
The theme for World Toilet Day 2017 is “Wastewater”.
As Ghana joins the rest of the world to commemorate this day, WUZDA Ghana is recognizing the importance of the struggle by partners to end open defecation and ensure treatment for human waste for use in food production.
The organization also looks at raising critical issues which hinder the success to the fight against poor management of human waste across the country.
WUZDA considers the proper management of human excreta to be a sure way of ending poverty, as it has been campaigning for human waste not to be seen as “waste”, but a commodity to helping improve agricultural yield.
This according to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene training coordinator for WUZDA Ghana, Mr. Ibrahim Abdul Ganiyu, is possible if proper measures are put in place for the human waste to be generated in a collective manner by especially households.
This therefore reveals that in fighting poor sanitation, the society can also make money out if to better the lives of its people.
Through its latrine credit facility, WUZDA has so far provided over 200 household latrines to various communities in the northern region.
This is partly aimed at ensuring that households generate their own poo to enable them process it into compost.
The latrine credit facility which was instituted in 2015 is a module which gives beneficiaries the opportunity to acquire a household latrine on credit and make monthly payments as they use it, till the facility is fully paid for.
The move is also to help end open defecation which is quite rampant in the region because of the poverty levels and the vast undeveloped land contained in it.
One of the household latrine designs WUZDA is using to achieve these is the Ecosan type latrine which gives the user direct and easy access to managing the waste after usage.
The expectation of the United Nations on the 2017 commemoration is for the human poo to go through some four basic stages;
I. Containment: Poo must be deposited into a hygienic toilet and stored in a sealed pit or tank, separated from human contact.
II. Transport: Pipes or latrine emptying services must move the poo to the treatment stage.
III. Treatment: Poo must be processed into treated wastewater and waste products that can be safely returned to the environment.
IV. Disposal or reuse: Safely treated poo can be used for energy generation or as fertilizer in food production.
On the occasion of the World Toilet Day 2017, WUZDA Ghana wishes all stakeholders a wonderful celebration of the successes chalked.
We wish all of us well in tackling the challenges the fight continues to come with, as we implore all individuals to practice ‘closed defecation’ to avoid spreading sanitation related diseases.
We conclude by stating that we can turn “waste” into ‘cash’ if we manage it properly.
Happy World Toilet Day!!!
Signed
Shaibu Awudu
(Communications Specialist)
WUZDA Ghana 