The Volta region in Ghana started implementing CLTS in the year 2012. Out of a total of 25 districts in the region, CLTS implementation in 7 districts is being led by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Government with support from UNICEF Ghana. Sustained efforts over the last three years have resulted in 476 communities achieving the basic criteria of ODF till 2014. Out of this, 36 of them have been officially ODF certified and the others are awaiting certification.
One of the biggest achievements reported in the Volta region relate to the absence of cholera cases in the communities that have achieved ODF status. This is to say that since 2014, almost 476 communities have not experienced any cases of cholera. These very communities recorded almost 284 cases of cholera with 9 deaths the year before, in 2013. Some of these communities have also confirmed that since the inception of CLTS they have not recorded in any deaths in their family in the past 3 years.
Those implementing CLTS in these communities reinforced their belief in CLTS saying that, this was a remarkable achievement and urged the government to adopt a strategy of investing more resources into empowering communities to stop open defecation rather than waiting for the cholera epidemic to hit the population and then fight it through emergency funds.
Source : Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Ghana
Date: May 15, 2015
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