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Ghana’s target of achieving an Open Defecation-Free country by 2020 could be derailed if intensive efforts are not employed by all stakeholders to fight the health menace.

Research indicates that 19% of Ghanaians still defecate in the open.

These were disclosed at a media training to build the capacity of journalists to help fight Open Defecation.

Speaking at the training, Mr Emmanuel Addai, a Communication Consultant at the Environmental Health Sanitation Directorate of the Ministry of Local Government, stated that Open Defecation and other sanitary challenges were responsible for the country’s recent cholera pandemic which claimed many lives.

According to him, the notion that human excreta is manure has fuelled the indiscriminate disregard for handling toilet properly.

“Fresh human excreta is not manure; it has to decompose first to become manure; every gram of toilet contains about a large amount of germs which can cause various diseases,” he added.

Mr Addai stated that in fighting open defecation, community-led total sanitation measures, as well as others, must be used in championing the fight since any pandemic that accrues from such situation does not affect only individuals but households and communities at large.

Mrs Charlotte Adjei Marfo, Environmental Analyst at the Accra Regional Co-ordinating Council, held that Accra had a long way to go with regard to sanitation.

“The recent cholera outbreak in Ghana, out of the 28,944 cases recorded nationwide, Accra alone scored 20,000 and above cases, indicating that Accra spread the disease to other parts of the country,” she said.

Mrs Adjei Marfo noted that to safeguard the lives of citizens, proper sanitary living conditions must be enforced by district assemblies.

According to the WASH consultant of UNICEF, Madam Ama Kudom Agyemang, the Ghana Statistical Service’s data on open defecation states that some household do not have places of convenience.

Per her stance, though there are communal toilet facilities, some of these groups resort to the open for various and varied reasons.

“This is why development partners and concerned groups are working to ensure that the factors that cause people to defecate openly are clipped,” she added.

Madam Ama Kudom Agyemang, however, said the need for media engagement on the issue is vital to the cause.