The invention was in response to the high incidence of open defecation (OD) and the challenges most households faced in the use of wooden slabs to construct household latrines which often get rotten and caves in during a short period of usage as well as the unaffordable concrete slabs.

In a presentation at the National Basic Sanitation Forum in Kumasi, the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Specialist of Global Communities Ghana, Madam Martha Tia-Adjei said the invention was also to make the construction and use of household latrines at the local level very affordable and hygienic to use as well as ensure that these latrines were durable, desirable, simple and sustainable.

The CLTS Specialist of Global Communities Ghana explained that the plastic slab latrine is very affordable, easy to install and durable. She said the “Digni Loo” has passed the Technology Assessment Framework (TAF) of the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources and was further taken through a Bend Test (deflection) and Static Load Test of 160kg at 115 & 720 hours and passed by the Ghana Standards Authority.

Madam Tia-Adjei further urged stakeholders in the WASH sector especially the MMDAs across the country to promote the use of the “Digni Loo” in the construction of household latrines as it saves cost and has a lifespan of twenty years (20).

She said the plastic slab latrines, which included a slab, a drum and a vent were manufactured locally in Ghana by Duraplast Ghana and could bought at any Duraplast outlet and from accredited agents across the country at a unit cost of GHc330.00.

According to Madam Tia-Adjei only 15% of Ghana’s population had access to basic sanitation and was the fifth most cholera-endemic country in the world and that the only way to reverse the trend was to encourage the construction and use of household latrines at the rural level.

Madam Tia-Adjei explained that Global Communities in collaboration with its partners have developed   Behaviour Change Communication messages under the refreshed Good Life Campaign to encourage communities and households to build, use and maintain improved household latrines, wash their hands with soap under running water before eating and after defecating as well as safely fetch, treat and store their drinking water.

The 2017 National Basic Sanitation Forum was under the theme: “Five years of Rural Sanitation Model and Strategy (RSMS) implementation in Ghana, learning for scaling up, Now and Beyond.”

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Credit: Global Communities

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The Ghanaian NGO is praying the Court to place an injunction on the termination of YES-Ghana’s involvement in the Youth Inclusive Entrepreneurial Development Initiative for Employment (YIEDIE) project, funded by the MasterCard Foundation in Canada.

In the writ seeking for interlocutory injunction, lawyers for YES-Ghana insisted that, the unilateral termination of YES-Ghana’s involvement in the YIEDIE project by Global Communities from 1st June 2017, will not only be “arbitrary, but unconscionable, unfair and unlawful.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”5mS9tA32MFkivUjzHL1cgrpllKaYeVhf”]YES-Ghana is however seeking an order from the court to compel Global Communities allow YES-Ghana’s 115 employees continue working in the YIEDIE project for the five-year period under which the project is supposed to take place.

The Ghanaian NGO is also seeking an order for an interim injunction to “restrain Global Communities, their agents or assigns from carrying out the said termination on the sole ground of Article 30.3 of the agreement, and from carrying out any decision or activities with the aim of interfering with the work of the plaintiff and its 115 employees in the YIEDIE project.”

Lawyers for YES-Ghana  argue in the writ that, contrary to the initial consortium arrangement as prescribed by the MasterCard Foundation’s Partner Guide, which led to the securing of appropriate funding for the YIEDIE project, the defendant [Global Communities], who was the lead applicant, decided to enter into separate agreements with each of the partners, and that several workshops had been protested by YES-Ghana against the said agreement because the terms violated the letter and spirit of the MasterCard Foundation’s Partner Guide.

The lawyers lamented that, because YES-Ghana was a lonely voice on the matter, and based on assurances by the defendant that a review of the contractual process would be done at the end of the first year of the project, their client decided to sign the said agreement with the Global Communities.

According to the writ, since the project began in April 2015, YES-Ghana has heavily invested into it in terms of mobilization, recruitment and building both human and institutional capacity which have altogether enabled it to work conscientiously on the project to achieve set targets, hence abrogating the contract will cause it irreparable damages.

Meanwhile, hearing of the case has been slated for 14 June 2017.

About YIEDIE project

The YIEDIE project is aimed at creating opportunities for the youth in Ghana’s construction industry by creating about 23,700 jobs within five years in targeted cities such as Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi, Ashaiman and Tema.

Speaking to Citi Business News at the National Youth Construction Summit in Accra in August 2016, the Project Director of YIEDIE Ghana, Kafui Vera Mills-Odoi, stated that the project was aimed at training young people in new methods of construction using modern technology.

“YIEDIE will directly reach at least 23,700 youth with training in technical, life and entrepreneurship skills leading to employment,” she said adding that “the project applies an integrated, youth-led market-systems model to improve the capacity of youth and service providers across the value chain.”

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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