Many people grimace or squirm just at the mention of the word toilet because they find it gross.
So, we have decided to use in its place, words such as washroom, restroom or private.
What we lose sight of, however, is the fact that although we may find the word unwelcome, especially when taking a meal, everybody needs to use a sanitary facility with that name on a daily basis because it is a basic necessity of all humans.
Sadly, millions of people the world over do not have access to basic sanitation facilities, hence the resort to open defecation which is inimical to public health.
Available statistics indicate that globally 1.7 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation, while 419 million people practise open defecation and 354 million lack access to safely managed sanitation.
Making matters worse, Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest access to sanitation across the globe.
Only about 25 per cent (25.3 per cent) of Ghanaians have access to basic sanitation services which are improved and not shared facilities, while over 57 per cent (59.3 per cent) of the population use shared or public toilets, according to the 2021 Population and Housing Census.
This has resulted in approximately 18 per cent (17.7 per cent) of the population practising open defecation, with more people in that bracket in rural areas.
The situation has led to high rates of sanitation-related diseases and millions of deaths, particularly among children in the country’s health facilities, and has also culminated in an economic cost of about $290 million annually.
Although proper or improved sanitation is a basic human right which is often discounted as a need by many middle-income to affluent households, the reality is that something as basic as a decent toilet or lavatory is lacking in many poor and low-income households in the country.
This situation, which does not persist only in Ghana, but also in many low to middle income or developing countries, is what informed the first commemoration of World Toilet Day (WTD) in 2001.
Organised by the World Toilet Organisation (WTO), marking of the day which is in its 25th year, but was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2013 and officially designated as World Toilet Day on November 19 that same year, is aimed at drawing global attention to the sanitation crisis.
This year the theme for WTD is ‘Sanitation in a changing world', with the tagline, ‘We’ll always need the toilet.’
In this country people can still be seen in long queues at public toilets, especially in the mornings, just because they live in households which do not have a basic facility such as a toilet.
Interestingly such households which have kitchens are made up of several rooms that have been rented, but tenants have to outrun each other on a daily basis just to relieve themselves.
Imagine living in one of such households, commonly referred to as compound houses, and experiencing a stomach upset deep in the night.
The only alternative would be to relieve yourself into a receptacle and dispose of it anywhere near, which also amounts to open defecation.
The Daily Graphic is aware that there are attempts to ensure that all households, especially in the suburbs of Accra and other towns and cities have toilets for the tenants, which includes providing financing for such households to build toilets.
However, we find it absurd that residential property owners are able to put up structures for residential purposes which they rent, but do not build washrooms in the same facilities.
We urge city authorities to be more vigilant in the enforcement of their sanitation by-laws to ensure that households in their jurisdictions have toilets before they rent them.
Seekers of accommodation and potential tenants must also insist that any rooms or apartments they intend to live in have toilets before they rent them and not be swayed by cheap rents, cheapening themselves in the process.
Aside from rooms and houses as residence, health facilities, offices, shops and stores must have washrooms for users, so that anyone who rents or uses them is not shortchanged and made to relieve themselves in receptacles that would be difficult to empty, and end up polluting the environment.
The Daily Graphic believes that we are all responsible for ensuring that access to basic sanitation facilities, which is a human right, is not abused by anyone.
