Last Friday, The Chronicle carried a story headlined, “KEEA Residents Prefer ‘Free Range’ To Proper Toilets –MCE”. The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA), Ismail Zagoon-Saeed made the disclosure, which we find disturbing, when he appeared before Parliament’s Local Government, Decentralisation and Religious Affairs Committee, chaired by Maame Queenstar Pokuah Sawyerr, MP for Agona East.
The committee was holding public hearings on the annual statements and audit reports of the Central Regional Coordinating Council (CRCC) and the assemblies under it. Sanitation, spatial planning and revenue mobilisation were on the agenda.
The Sanitation in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) Municipality drew particular attention after Ms Sawyerr put pointed questions to the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Ismail Zagoon-Saeed.
Mr Zagoon-Saeed told the committee the assembly was doing its best, but that residents preferred open defecation to using toilets. “Even though we have toilet facilities around, when you meet these people and ask them why they don’t use the toilet, they will tell you they prefer ‘free range’,” he said.
He said the assembly has provided a public toilet at the beach, yet people continued to relieve themselves in the open, including on the sea defence wall. “You go and clean there today, tomorrow another problem. To the extent that even the sea defence wall that is protecting us, people just go and be defecating there,” he said.
Ms Sawyerr suggested that the assembly provide toilets at strategic points along the beaches and fence off areas where open defecation is common. Mr Zagoon-Saeed responded that fencing could be considered, but the affected stretch runs from Elmina towards Komenda, which makes fencing and enclosing it difficult. The committee warned that the practice could spread diseases such as cholera and called for stronger public education.
The Chronicle finds this troubling and disgraceful. A beach is a place of leisure and recreation, and using it, and the sea defence that protects the town, as a toilet is unacceptable.
The MCE’s explanation, however, is incomplete. Preference may play a part, but access matters too.
A University of Ghana study of the municipality, available on the university’s UGSpace repository, noted that many households lack toilets of their own and found that income and education are significant predictors of open defecation. Any remedy must, therefore, combine provision with enforcement.
On enforcement, assemblies derive their bye-law-making power from the Local Government Act, 2016 (Act 936) and sanitation bye-laws. These laws generally oblige owners of residential and commercial premises to provide an approved toilet with penalties for non-compliance.
If KEEA’s bye-laws are valid and are not being applied, that would be a failure of mandate. The health risks are real. Open defecation contaminates soil, food and water through the faecal-oral route. It is associated with cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A, dysentery and other diarrhoeal diseases, which are especially dangerous for young children, as well as intestinal worm infections and schistosomiasis.
The Chronicle firmly believes if the sanitation issues are unchecked, it could contribute to an outbreak of the aforementioned diseases in the area. Because Elmina draws visitors, an outbreak would endanger tourists as well as residents and hurt the local economy.
We would also like to call on the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs to support the assembly and treat the matter as a public health priority. The Ministry should also tell the public whether household toilet subsidies like those under the World Bank-backed Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) Sanitation and Water Project, which was extended to Greater Kumasi in 2020, will be revived and extended to coastal municipalities such as KEEA.
The GAMA project subsidised household toilets for low-income families, but records show it was due to close in December 2024 and its coordinator then said the ministry was seeking funds to resume it. Citizens deserve to know what has replaced it.
Whilst awaiting decision on this, KEEA Assembly must also publish and enforce its sanitation bye-laws, prosecute offenders and expand toilet provision along the beaches. Traditional leaders should use their influence to discourage the practice, which damages the name of KEEA.
Additionally, Vice-President Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, a native of Komenda should also lend her weight to the effort.
The affected coastline runs towards her hometown and its people have a stake in the outcome. KEEA must shed the “free range” tag now.
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