Toilets pose health risk

By Ojuku Silver-tongue Kangar Jr.

Liberian Refugees at the Buduburam Refugee Camp, Central Region, Ghana, say public toilets are a health risk because they are poorly maintained.

“We prefer going at the bushes,” one woman said.

James Jabbie, Zone-9 toilet attendant, said it can take one or two months for the sanitation board to come around and clean out the toilets.

"During these periods, maggots can be all over the seats and floors,” he said.

He uses disinfectant to get of bad odours and destroy germs, but he said the sanitation board is often late getting him a new supply when he runs out.

Many people defecate into polythene bags in the bushes and then dump them into the toilet. This makes it hard for sanitation workers to clean them properly.

Jabbie said that adults pay ¢500 each to defecate, while children and elderly people pay nothing.

He gives about ¢25,000 daily to the Buduburam Sanitation Board, and earns ¢200,000 a month himself.

Josiah J. Kofi, Chairman of the Buduburam Sanitation Board, would not talk about how that money is spent to maintain the toilets in the camp.

Othello Bantoe, a Senior Nurses at the BEERSHEBA Health and Education Development Organization (BADEO), advised the toilet attendants to continuously use hydrogen peroxide (disinfectant) in all the toilets and clean them every two weeks for the refugee community to be healthy. be healthy.