About 70 per cent of Ghanaian homes does not have adequate toilet facilities, a study the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) conducted in 2008 established.
Mrs Theodora Adomako-Adjei, Extension Services Coordinator of the CWSA, who announced this in Cape Coast on Tuesday, described the situation as sad and an affront to the campaign against unsanitary conditions.
She was speaking at 'a media/children's forum' as part of activities to mark 'global hand washing day', to sensitize school children and media personnel in the Cape Coast Metropolis on the importance of washing hands with soap.
The day which falls on Thursday October 15, was instituted by the United Nations to promote the culture of hand washing with soap to help to prevent the spread of communicable diseases to stem preventable deaths.
Mrs Adomako-Adjei deplored the fact that about 68 per cent of Ghana's population used public latrines which most often were run under very unhygienic conditions, and that some homes had no toilets facilities, as a results of which their occupants defecated in the open, such as at the beaches and on rubbish dumps.
She stressed the need for all homes to be provided with toilet facilities to promote good sanitation in the country, and asked the public
not to fail to observe the simple rule of washing hands with soap and water after visiting the toilet and to avoid handling food with unclean hands.
Mrs Adomako-Adjei explained that failing to wash one's hands with soap and water before eating, could result in a person indirectly eating their own faeces and which could lead to contracting communicable diseases such as
diarrhoea and respiratory-tract infections, adding that diarrhoea and pneumonia accounted for about 3.5 million deaths among children under five year of age globally .
She said hand washing with soap, was therefore the single most effective health intervention method that could save a lot of lives, particularly among children urged the public to demand the provision of hand
washing facilities such as clean water and soap at vantage points like, near public latrines, lorry parks and market places to further promote the practice.
Ms Janet Alamisi Dabire, Communication and Campaign Officer of WaterAid, one of the collaborators of the CWSA, said the agents of change, both the media and the school children should propagate the message of hand washing with soap.
Mr Jonathan Blankson, the Deputy Regional Director of Education, who chaired the function, urged the school children to endeavour to wash their hands very well with soap and water after visiting the toilet and before eating and appealed to the media to intensify its education on the practice.