About 242 of over 300 communities in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District of the Savannah Region have been declared open defecation-free communities.
This means open defecation is now a thing of the past since all the communities now have household toilets through the implementation of Community-Led Total Sanitation, CLTS.
This feat was achieved through the benevolence of Global Communities, an NGO, under its WASH for Health Project funded by UNICEF.
The Programme Coordinator for the Northern Zone, WASH for Health, Dominic Dapaah, said his outfit is working to ensure that all the remaining 42 communities will attain open defecation-free status by the end of September, this year.
Global Communities was the first organization to start the implementation of the Community-Led Total Sanitation, CLTS in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba district in 2016.
CLTS is an approach to improving sanitation to combat open defecation and it is the construction of household latrines with the goal of declaring communities open defecation free.
The Programmes Coordinator for the Northern Zone, Dominic Dapaah said the introduction of some technologies and innovations and the willingness and acceptance level of community members triggered most of the communities to attain open defecation free status.
He said his outfit is mapping out strategies to facilitate the attainment of the remaining communities as ODF in order to declare the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba district ODF, second after Nandom district.
Mr Dapaah said CLTS promotes sustainable sanitation and hygiene practices and reinforces the belief that people who own household latrines have improved health. He underscored the need for government and organizations to prioritize.