Chief of Akyem Ankaase shows leadership in community-wide sanitation improvement

The Chief of Ankaase, Nana Ansah Sasraku Ofram II gave an ultimatum to all households within his community to build and use latrine(s) or face sanctions. He took this decision after taking a walk through the town and seeing that people were still practising open defecation, in addition to indiscriminate disposal of plastic wastes which in his words, has left the environment in a poor state. He called a meeting and tabled the poor sanitation situation of the community before his council of elders. After the issue was deliberated upon, a decision was taken to cause a public announcement to be made for the people to be informed about the ultimatum. They Chief and his Elders in council strongly believed that people will stop open defecation if every house has its own latrine, moreso when there is no public latrine in the community.

Nana Ansah Sasraku Ofram II could not understand why people in his community will build houses without toilet. He therefore took it upon himself to lessen the burden on those households who were very poor and could not afford to construct the latrines without help. He supported them with two roofing sheets each to enable them complete their latrines. This support from the Chief was symbolic and motivated a lot of households in his community to build ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines. Consequently, Akyem Ankaase emerged as the community with the largest number of VIP latrines constructed under the Atiwa WASH Project which was funded by Ernst Peyer Foundation of Switzerland. The community constructed 102 VIP Latrines in less than two years with households contributing about 76% of the cost of each latrine. “It is my wish that the entire community becomes very neat so that during occasions, there will not be any embarrassment to me and my community” – said, Nana Ansah Sasraku Ofram II.