The Media Coalition Against Open Defecation (M-CODe) has highlighted the need for decent toilets along every major highway in the country as a necessary step to enhance the culture of hygiene among the citizenry.  

The National Convener of M-CODe, Mr Emmanuel Addai, made the call prior to the official launching of the Volta Region branch of the coalition in Ho on Wednesday.  

He said that such facilities along the highways would definitely help to reduce the high incidence of the open defecation in the country apart from guaranteeing the comfort of travellers in distress.  

Mr Addai pointed out that the menace of open defecation could extend from the highways to the communities in the form of diseases and it was high time the appropriate steps were taken to curb the trend.  

Meanwhile, the National Convener of M-CODe has blamed the large absence of toilets in many homes in the country on the continuous failure of the Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to enforce the Building Code.  

“The assemblies look on unconcerned as developers put up houses without toilets and also schools and health facilities without functioning toilets,” he observed.  

Mr Yaw Attah Arhin, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Technical Coordinator of World Vision Ghana, sponsors of M-CODe activities revealed that 6.5 million people in Ghana still engaged in open defecation.  

That state of affairs did not project a clean image for the country and it was time the issue was addressed with utmost seriousness, he pointed out.  

Mr Arhin said that the vigorous involvement in the campaign against open defecation by M-CODe was timely and also projected highly bright prospects for the success of the campaign.  

The acting Volta Region Secretary of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Mawuli Hubert Yevu-Agbi urged members of the M-CODe to support the movement against open defecation with great zeal and enthusiasm, adding that matters of sanitation and hygiene were of greater national importance than political stories.  

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