No longer a laughing matter – 2.5 billion people do not have toilets!

By Edmund Smith-Asante

No household latrines

For the first time in 12 years since the World Toilet Organisation declared November 19 as World Toilet Day in 2001, this year’s observation of the day would be with the blessing of the United Nations with the theme: “The Rural Meet the Urban Sanitation“.

Selection of the theme is informed by the need to improve sanitation to alleviate poverty, promote health and hygiene in both rural and urban communities and Ghana marked the day with a national forum at the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Accra. The theme for Ghana’s commemoration was “An open defecation free Ghana in my lifetime”.