88 communities in Bono Region attain Open Defecation free status

About 88 local communities in the Bono Region have attained Open Defecation Free (ODF) status, an indication that nobody defecates openly in the communities.

Mr Humphrey Brandt, the Deputy Bono Regional Environmental Officer who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Sunyani, on Friday, said those communities, which spread across seven districts, had enacted bye-laws, and were enforcing them to help sustain that achievement.

He said the 88 communities were among the 180 communities in the 12 politically administrative districts and municipalities the regional environmental health unit and the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) were working to end OD in the region.

To sustain that achievement, Mr Brandt said his outfit had assisted the OD-free communities which had enacted and were enforcing sanitation bye-laws in their respective areas.

He explained between 2019 and 2020 the Environmental Health Unit in collaboration with the CWSA constructed more than 4,000 community latrines in the then Brong-Ahafo Region to improve environmental sanitation.

Mr Brandt said the Unit was also collaborating with the Municipal and District Assemblies to ensure that household toilets were constructed in communities and cautioned the public against indiscriminate dumping of refuse to prevent the outbreak of communicable diseases.