The Municipal Education Director, Madam Habiba Kotomah has rallied schoolchildren and the citizenry of the La Dade-Kotopon Municipality to adhere to proper practices.
She made this call during the World Toilet Day Celebration held at the Tenashie Junior High School on Wednesday November 18, 2023.
The event organised by the Municipal Education Directorate on theme: Accelerating Change, is to highlight the dangers of open defecation among others and how to prevent them.
The event brought together schoolchildren and facilitators from difference schools, residents, and staff from the La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assembly amongst others.
Madam Habiba Kotomah also called on the facilitators and the schoolchildren to collaborate with stakeholders in the Municipality to help reduce the menace of open defecation in the schools and the communities.
She expressed concern that, if open defecation continues at the school’s enclave and the communities by both schoolchildren and the citizenry, it will pose danger to health. Madam Habiba Kotomah therefore described the observation of the World Toilet Day at the school with the children as appropriate and urged the facilitators and the children to be good ambassadors for the facilities to stand the test of its purpose.
Madam Habiba Kotomah emphasised the important role the toilet facilities in the schools have played in the fight against open defecation, spreading of communicable disease among others. She said, through a donor’s partnership with the Government of Ghana to accelerate and sustain the change needed, numerous schools in Ghana have benefited from the new toilet facilities with changing rooms which have contributed to the improvement of school attendance, especially amongst menstruating girls.

Madam Habiba Kotomah announced that the Ghana statistical service data released in 2021 shows an improved access to toilet facilities from 51% to 70% and that has reduced open defecation in schools and communities in Ghana.
The World Toilet Day is observed on November 19 of each calendar year to sensitise people on the need to have access to toilet and its maintenance and cleanliness to avoid spreading of communicable infection.
In other to accelerate and sustain the change needed, Madam Habiba Kotomah held that, regular public education must be conducted to ensure continuous maintenance and cleanliness of the school toilet facilities. She mentioned that the observation of the World Toilet Day is for education and sensitization among school population to achieve SDG 6 in Ghana.