The Tamale Metropolitan Assembly will no longer construct public toilets in neighborhoods an in all communities under the jurisdiction of the assembly except at public places such as markets, big lorry parks, hospitals and institutions such as schools where people usually congregate in large numbers outside their homes.
In this connection, Landlords and all owners of homes and other residential properties who do not have toilet facilities within those are therefore require to urgently provide such necessities or have themselves to blame when enforcement of the directive begins.
These were announced by the Mayor of Tamale, Alhaji Haruna Abdualai Friday at separate meetings with chiefs, opinion leaders, women commissioners, unit committee members and others residence during a working visit to 16 communities within three electoral areas in the Metropolis.
The visits were to afford the Mayor the opportunity to listen to the concerns and other developmental challenges of the people so as to enable the assembly evolve appropriate strategies and interventions to address the challenges.
According to Friday, all submitted request for building permits for the construction of residential accommodation that do not contain provision for toilet facilities will not be approved by the assembly.
The initiative he said is also urgently being implemented by most of the Metropolitan, Municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) across the country as part of measures by the local government ministry to combat poor environmental sanitation and other unhygienic condition associated with most of these public toilets, stressing that, the move is also aimed at protecting the people against exposure to the risk of contagious and infectious diseases associated with the usage of public toilets.
This new directive he stated will undoubtedly posed a huge challenge to most household in the metropolis and therefore assured that, all the existing public toilets will not be closed down but will rather be kept and maintained to serve the needs of those who may not immediately be able to afford their own toilets within their homes. He indicated that some assemblies in the country have already embraced the policy and have started enforcing it whilst at the same time facilitating the extension of support from NGOs and other environmentally conscious organizations to assist interested households who may not have the ability and capacity to fund the construction of the toilets on their own.
He added that the assembly will do same here in Tamale so as to support those who will not be able to afford the construction of their own household toilets saying the Metropolis will soon benefit from a support of 1,500 household toilets from the French International Development Organization Agency Francais Development (AFD).
The Mayor expressed optimism about the success of the new initiative even though the support from the French Government is woefully inadequate considering the number of households in the Metropolis but notwithstanding, he appealed to all in the Metropolis to embrace this new policy directive of the Assembly so as to make Tamale an environmentally clean and safe place for all.
He however made a passionate appeal to them to desist from defecating indiscriminately and warned of severe consequences for all those who will be caught littering the environment with any form of unwanted waste materials.
The request of the people in all the communities visited included the need or lack of electricity, access road leading or from one community to the other, additional or a new school block, safe and portable drinking water, access to credit facilities, toilets facilities, refuse containers, drains to check flooding, income generating activities and construction of culverts as in the case of residents in Chogu-filling point.
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