The only public toilet in Tilli, a 24-year-old pit latrine shared by an estimated 3,000 people, is reportedly on the verge of collapse.
Members of the community, found in Bawku West, a hilly district in Ghana’s Upper East Region, say the sanitation facility has shifted from a place of convenience to one of inconvenience because its floor is breaking up and the cracks are getting wider as days go by.
They also say the pit below the floor is full and an unbearable stench emanating from the structure is strong enough to remove perfumes from clothes.
Some of the community members no longer visit the facility owing to its current condition. They now use the open spaces as a toilet.
That facility was constructed under the Kufuor government around 2002 as part of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) sanitation initiatives, and it reportedly has not been rehabilitated since it was built.
Citizens engage government, state institutions for answers
Worried representatives of the community appeared at a stakeholders’ meeting on Wednesday, 11 March 2026, and made an uncommon demand to the government.
The meeting was jointly organised by Belim Wusa Development Agency (BEWDA) and WaterAid-Ghana in the district’s capital, Zebilla, as a platform for some select communities to voice their concerns to the government and the state agencies in the district.
“In Tilli, the only public toilet was built during the HIPC era— over 20 years ago. It has never been rehabilitated.
“Our population has grown, but our facilities have not. Open defecation is now the norm, not because we want it, but because we have no choice,” said Martin Akugri, a teacher who spoke on behalf of the community at the meeting.
The uncommon demand
Key officials represented the Bawku West District Assembly, Environmental Health Department, Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service, Department of Agriculture, Ghana National Fire Service and Environmental Protection Agency at the interface meeting.
Also present were officials from the National Disaster Management Organisation, Forestry Commission, Water Board, National Commission for Civic Education and Information Service Department.
They listened as the young teacher from Tilli continued with his presentation.
“In our community, when the rains come, our mud-built household toilets collapse. We build them again. They collapse again, year after year.
“We demand [that you] build flood-resistant public toilets in our markets and schools [and] provide subsidies for household toilets that can withstand climate change— elevated, stabilised and durable. Give us bins and collect them [the waste] regularly,” he said.
Tilli is not the only community facing sanitation-related problems in the district. There are several other communities that do not even have a public toilet.
Two of such communities, Komaka and Agatuse, were also represented at the meeting. Their representatives also spoke one after the other, highlighting their communities’ concerns and demands.
Background of meeting
The meeting was an activity under a project BEWDA and WaterAid-Ghana are implementing together to address the impact of climate change on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities in the district.
They are implementing the project in collaboration with the relevant state institutions and the communities in the area.
The project stemmed from the findings and recommendations of a Community Vulnerability Risks Assessment report on the impact of climate change on the district’s WASH facilities.
It is dubbed Civil Society Mobilising for Better WASH (CLIMB) and it is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
Team makes climate change visits to communities
The stakeholders’ meeting covered other issues beyond sanitation, with water security, menstrual hygiene and deforestation also on the agenda.
Before the stakeholder’s meeting took place, the Bawku West District Assembly had recommended twenty-eight communities for the CLIMB project team to work with.
The team randomly selected three communities from the twenty-eight based on the levels of their vulnerability (exposure) to climate change. The three were Agatuse, Komaka and Tilli.
The team, led by Agumah Sebastian Mbabugri, had visited the three select communities before the stakeholders’ meeting to check the impact of climate change on WASH facilities in the areas and to assess the seriousness of the problems confronting the communities in relation to water, sanitation, hygiene and environmental protection.
Forty people were interviewed in each of the three communities during the team’s visits. The forty respondents comprised women, men, youth representatives, persons with disabilities and some individuals from the minority ethnic groups in the communities.
The team also measured how the relevant state institutions in the district were performing their duties in response to these four thematic or subject areas in those communities.
The project team used a scorecard to record its findings and shared them at the meeting, with the leader (Mbabugri) presenting them on a screen to participants.
Findings show suffering of women and girls
The findings reveal that water sources in the communities are infested with larvae and filled with mud.
Residents, particularly women, also queue for water for a long time as newly drilled boreholes are going dry.
Some of the new boreholes have not even pumped out a drop of water. The situation is attributed to climate change and it is said to be costing the women a lot of their productive time.
The findings also show that there are no private places for women and girls in the communities to change during their menstrual periods.
The stigma associated with menstruation at school is compelling schoolgirls to stay at home, with the girls’ involuntary absence from school reportedly averaging four days a month and 48 days a year.
The communities, according to the findings, also do not have waste bins, one of the reasons plastic waste is found everywhere.
While indiscriminate felling of trees for charcoal production is a major problem in the communities, continuous burning of vegetation is also making it tough for animals to find food.
An elderly woman, whose name is not given, is quoted in the findings to have told the project team during a climate-change assessment visit to Komaka: “People cut trees not to destroy, but for survival.”
Generally, the findings paint a picture where the climate change-related crises confronting the communities are severe but responses from the relevant state institutions are low.
Why communities still suffer despite provision of WASH facilities
The existing problems associated with access to WASH facilities in the district, according to some members of the communities, are made even worse as some decision-makers, who are tasked to oversee the construction of the facilities, often place the projects at wrong locations.
The projects, they say, end up either where they are not really needed or where they cannot function because the decision-makers mostly fail to consult the communities or refuse to heed candid suggestions from individuals or groups as to where to properly situate the projects.
The dams and boreholes also sometimes end up in wrong places or where they are not fit for purpose as the decision-makers, for some personal or political reasons, deliberately exclude the communities or community civic leaders from planning and monitoring of execution.
The communities lamented this trend through their representatives at the meeting, and bemoaned the huge amounts of money being wasted when WASH facilities failed owing to wrong positioning.
While demanding a say in the budgets meant for WASH projects, they also collectively insisted on being involved in the siting of the projects and in the monitoring of their execution.
They jointly made other demands. These included: climate-resilient (sustainable) boreholes and dams, regular water testing, water-equipped facilities and changing rooms with safe disposal appendage structures for schools.
The rest were: flood-resistant public toilets, subsidies for household toilets, waste bins, regular collection of waste from the bins, empowering community-led forest committees against deforestation and providing alternative income options.
Response from assembly
Speaking at the meeting, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Bawku West, James Ayamwego, said the government was taking the communities’ concerns seriously.
“As the District Assembly, we take these concerns very seriously. Access to safe water, improved sanitation and good hygiene practices remains a key priority in our development agenda and is well reflected in our Medium-Term Development Plan (2026–2029).
“We are committed to working with development partners, civil society organisations and community leaders to improve WASH infrastructure and strengthen climate resilience across the district,” he stated.
The DCE further lauded the meeting as a platform offering practical ways through which the government and its partners could listen to the voices of the communities and respond effectively to their concerns.
He also urged stakeholders to use such platforms to “build stronger partnerships, promote accountability and strengthen” their collective commitment for the common good of the district.
“I want to remind you that we have come to the realities. It is no longer a [theory]. We are confronted with the impact of climate change. What is left for us is to discuss the issues openly and find solutions that better address the issues that confront us,” he stressed.
The Bawku West District Coordinating Director, Charles Akurugu, said the assembly was desirous of providing all the amenities the communities demanded and deserved but could not do so owing to resource constraints.
The director, however, observed that some of the existing WASH amenities in the district were being misused by residents. He advised the communities to take ownership of all such facilities, including those yet to be provided, and maintain them to ensure long-term sustainability.
Taking questions from journalists after the event, BEWDA’s Executive Director, Peter Asaal, underscored the need for the Bawku West District Assembly to enact bye-laws that would make communities more resilient to climate challenges, reduce environmental harm and promote sustainable development.
“The truth is that the communities have to do something themselves before the duty bearers come to support them in addressing the issues.
“But if they are not able to do anything themselves, it means that all the investments made by the assembly or duty bearers would not be sustained,” said the executive director.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana/ West Africa
