Ghanaian institutions believe that about 61% of the people have access to improved latrine facilities. However, a recent report from the UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) called "A Snapshot of Sanitation in Africa" [1], indicates that only ten percent of Ghanaians had access to improved latrine facilities as at 2006. The JMP's adherence to the application of international standards in computing the figures is the cause of the controversy. The JMP clearly separates shared latrine facilities from the improved ones, a situation that places Ghana, in terms of performance 48th out of 51 African countries and 14th out of 15 West African countries assessed in the report. According to the report, shared facilities alone represent 51% in terms of access to latrines in Ghana.

Ghana has made enormous investments in public latrines. To declare all these facilities unimproved by Ghana would imply additional financial resources to either provide or promote private latrines.

The sanitation sector as a whole, led by the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, should debate this issue as soon as possible. This will help the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate to do a more effective analysis of the on-going nationwide baseline sanitation data collection before another 'data bomb' explodes.

[1] A snapshot of sanitation in Africa, report produced for the AfricaSan+5 International Conference on Sanitation held in Durban, South Africa in February 2008

Web site:UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme

Source: Public Agenda (Accra) / allAfrica.com, 04 Jul 2008

Tags: africa, monitoring & evaluation, on-site sanitation