Ministry of Special Development Initiatives to stop BIHECO, AVASEC from using pit latrines

The Ministry of Special Development Initiatives is constructing 10-seater institutional toilet facility each for the Bishop Herman College at Kpando and the Vane Avatime Senior High School to stop the students from using pit latrines.

Madam Mavis Hawa Koomson, the sector Minister, said the projects to be executed by the Coastal Belt Development Authority under her supervision were to improve sanitation in the schools and enhance teaching and learning.

The Minister, during a tour of the schools noted that sanitation in educational institutions were major challenges, with two out of every five schools being without toilet facilities, but hopefully government’s “sanitation for all” project would fix the problems.

At the Vane Avatime Senior High School, Madam Koomson assured that her Ministry would complete a 1,000 capacity girls’ dormitory abandoned since 2009, because it fell within the educational component of the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP).

She said the institutional toilet facilities for the schools would have two disability friendly units, solar powered mechanized boreholes, 5,000 litre-water storage tank and a bio-digester waste storage and disposal avenue, which would be connected to the school’s kitchen.

The Minister said by the end of the year, a total of 1,000 institutional toilets would be completed for use across the country.

Mr Wisdom Annang, Headmaster of Vane Avatime Senior High School, told the Ghana News Agency that the intervention would save the School from pit digging and diseases associated with the use of pit latrines.

“Most of our girls are suffering from candidiasis and many of us are also suffering from skin diseases from bites of flies attracted by the pit latrine,” he said.