Video on the improvements taking place around sanitation and hygiene in Bongo District, Ghana.
Published on: 29/10/2020
Open defecation was still rife in 2015 in Bongo District. Eight out of ten people were practising open defecation. The District Assembly together with WaterAid Ghana and partners took action to change this. By 2020 the district was showing strong progress thanks to sensitisation and triggering.
Asoloko was one of the communities that started adopting new practices. The schools, health centres and public spaces were also involved in the process. Apart from toilet use, handwashing was a main component of the sensitisation. The Asoloko primary school was doing so well that they were awarded a prize and were given soap for the whole school. Foe Community Health and Planning Services now has very clean and smart toilets for their staff and patients. Volunteers clean the toilets regularly and the community is made aware of the importance of cleanliness.
In the heart of Bongo Soe is a market site which is being provided with a suite of toilets. Users will have to pay a small fee to use the toilet which one of the stallholders will collect. She will also make sure the toilets are kept clean. Getting toilets in all the markets is a priority for the district. For Bongo District Assembly and partners, it is crucial to sustain the gains that they have made.
The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has collected together with IRC Ghana a series of best practice stories on meeting the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) challenges for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). The stories were collected in three districts namely, Asutifi North, Bongo and Wassa East.
