Ing. George Asiedu, Project Coordinator for the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA SWP) ,has urged house owners to subscribe only to the services of licensed artisans for the construction of a bio digester toilet facility.
He has pointed out that those trained and certified have been equipped with the technical know-how regarding the right way to construct and install the facility.
Owing to the foregoing, the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources has since the launch of the bio-digester construction and installation manual till date upgraded the skills and knowledge of 480 artisans on the right way to construct and install the bio digester toilet according to the standards that have been prescribed in the manual.
Addressing the media on the sidelines of the 2022 Media Engagement program, he indicated that the trained artisans were drawn from 24 contractors who have been contracted by the Ministry for the building of the toilet under the Gama Sanitation and Water project.
He added that such were certified and licensed after the training.
“Each contractor brought 20 artisans for the training” and that officials are still building the capacity of fresh artisans who would want to have knowledge on the best way of constructing a bio digester toilet facility per the prescription of the manual.
The move according to him is a way of ensuring that proper bio-digester toilets are put up for the use in households in accordance with the manual.
He has therefore called on house owners to register at their respective district assemblies for certified artisans.
The bio digester toilet technology is one of the faster-growing toilet options in urban Ghana. The use of the bio-digesters has been given a boost by the World Bank-funded GAMA Sanitation and Water Project (2014-2020) which seeks to provide improved sanitation to low-income urban areas.
Still in an interview with the media, Ing. George Asiedu charged persons and house owners who do not have a toilet to size the opportunity and apply for one, explaining that government is providing a subsidy of over 80 percent “and so if you don’t take advantage of it now and you are caught in the web you have no excuse. The good news is that irrespective of the economic situation the government is not increasing the cost of accessing toilet in homes because of the importance placed on it. People should take advantage other than that if they are prosecuted they will have no excuse.”
