Open defecation at Suma Ahenkro, residents threaten demo against Assembly
Political party campaigns will be boycotted if u failed to acts Suma-Ahenkro residents to politicians.
Joana Somiah 
The people of Suma-Ahenkro (Konadu Yiadom electoral area), a community in the Jaman North district have lamented over the poor nature of roads in the area and lack of toilets, and have threatened to boycott political party campaigns if the situation is not fixed.
They called on the authorities to come to their aid to alleviate their suffering, noting that "lack of lavatories has forced us to attend to nature’s call in the bush or in black polythene bags, which are later disposed of at the communal dumpsite, a situation that threatens the health of the community”.
Prince Atta Edward, Assembly Member, said despite persistent appeals to the Assembly on the urgent need to provide basic amenities in the community, especially toilets, nothing has been done to alleviate their plight.
He stated that the current leadership of the Assembly had not carried out any developmental projects in the area and that had allowed people to defecate indiscriminately in the community.
The Assembly Member urged the government to deem it necessary to focus on the rapid infrastructural development of the community.
Open defecation continues to be a critical health challenge globally, affecting almost 1 billion people worldwide and contributing significantly to an estimated 842,000 people who die yearly from sanitation-related diseases. Open defecation is a major environmental health problem facing many countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Although open defecation rates have been reducing gradually since 2000, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) era ended without all countries in sub-Saharan Africa achieving target 7.C., which included reducing by half the proportion of the population without sustainable access to basic sanitation by 2015.
The existence of open defecation is associated with diseases, undernutrition and poverty and is usually considered as an affront to personal dignity.
Ghana has been ranked second after Sudan in Africa for open defecation, with almost 5 million Ghanaians not having access to any toilet. The number of people practising open defecation in Ghana was reported at 18.75% in 2015.
This refers to the percentage of the population defecating in the open, such as in fields, forests, bushes, open bodies of water, on beaches and in other open spaces or those who dispose of human excreta with solid waste.
Nana Ama Aseidu, Bono Region
