World Toilet Day 2021 marked in South Dayi

The South Dayi District Assembly (SDDA) in collaboration with Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) has marked this year’s World Toilet Day with a float to sensitise landlords on the need to provide proper places of convenience for their households.

The float which started from  Peki Avetile saw the staff of the Environmental Health Division of the South Dayi District Assembly as well as WSUP distributing educational materials about the household toilet facilities and sensitizing residents on the importance of acquiring a proper sanitary facility to attend to nature’s call whiles reinforcing Covid-19 prevention protocols.

The procession marched through  Peki Avetile and other adjoining comminuties at the forecourt of Peki Avetile Community Centre amidst music and dancing.

World Toilet Day is an annual global event organized by the United Nations (UN) to raise awareness on the 4.2 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation.

The UN declared that World toilet day should become an official UN day and should be commerated on every 19^th November, every year by a resolution adopted by 122 countries at the 67^th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

The Day also seeks to address the global sanitation crisis and achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: (Water and Sanitation for all by 2030).

Speaking at a durbar to climax the celebration, District Chief Executive Hon. Godwin Kwame Dzadzawa in a speech said the Assembly through the household toilet facility hopes to eliminate open defecation, improve access to basic sanitation services and promote hygienic attitudes among City dwellers.

He also used the occasion to caution City dwellers against the Covid-19 pandemic and urged them to wash their hands frequently and wear masks always. ‘’Staying hygienic saves lives, Soap and water save lives’’

The District Environmental Health Officer (DEHO) , Mr C.K.  Awude in a remark  described lives without a toilet facility as “dirty, dangerous and undignified”, insisting that “toilet is dignity, water is life.”

Mr. Awude  further highlighted five reasons an individual and institution must own a toilet facility.

They are:

1. Toilet keeps human waste out of water and food chain systems
2. Toilet maintain human dignity
3. Toilet protect us from being infected with communicable disease such as; diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid etc.
4. Toilet keeps girls in school during menstruation
5. Toilet create jobs (sanitation systems need people to run them).

He, therefore, used the opportunity to encourage “everyone to own a toilet” as the surest way of overcoming the menace of open defecation.