Open defecation dwindling tourism numbers- Minister cries

The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Catherine Afeku, has said

According to Global Media Foundation (GLOEMF), a media advocacy non-governmental organisation, Ghana's economy loses $79 million each year due to open defecation.

The minister, speaking on Peace FM's Entertainment Review show Saturday, said her ministry is collaborating with the Sanitations and Water Resources Ministry to address the menace.

She said: "Open defecation is reducing our tourism numbers. When he tourists come to have fun and they are exposed to open defecation, it affect he work.

"For the past two weeks, I have been out there in the field actually doing physical assessment making sure in collaboration with the sanitation minister, we stop this menace so we can have space for our creative arts to flourish.

"Tourists cannot go and stay in hotels were they are not playing music, where there is no good food or cultural display.

"What is keeping them from coming is this open defecation.

In 2017, Ghana was named among the top 10 countries worldwide with the highest percentage of its population without decent toilets.

Ghana has about 85.7 percent of its population without decent toilets and this equals about 23 million people who suffer the fear and indignity of relieving themselves in the open or in unsafe or unhygienic toilets.

This is contained in a report entitled 'Out of Order' released by WaterAid, an international Non-Governmental Organization in its 2017 state of the world’s toilets.

According to the report, the lack of decent toilets around the world prevents women and girls from fulfilling their potential.