Gone were those days, when as a married woman, another man other than your husband casts a glance or touched your waist, was deemed a taboo, let alone seeing your nakedness. This has however become the norm because a count cannot be made of how many times men and boys clashed with ladies in an attempt to attend to nature`s call 'in the bush. This is the ordeal of Mrs Nbamah Yen, a 41-year-old trader at the Pelungu market in the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region which is one of the biggest markets in the Nabdam District of Upper East Region. The absence of a toilet facility in the market is compelling traders and patrons of the market and its environments to defecate in the open. THE GUILT 'Sometimes, we feel so ashamed because there were times women and men see each other's nakedness and normally such clashes end with the word…sorry.' 'Though this may not be the first time, the continuous encounter of this was a shame to many.'Mrs Yen narrated. The story of Mrs Yen is like Mrs. Ndamah Tii, a tr ader also at the Kongo market, where traders suffered a similar challenge of no toilet facility therefore forcing people to defecate in the open around the market. 'The absence of a toilet facility in the market is a serious issue that demands the government`s attention because we are suffering a lot as we have to walk to the bush to enable us to attend to nature`s call and as a hawker in the market slows down our businesses,' she said. The plights of these two women at their various locations in these two markets are not isolated cases, but serious concerns in the district despite the construction of toilet facilities in the Pelungu market by the Nabdam District Assembly. There are currently six toilet facilities located in six markets within the district under the $1 million per constituency initiative but all these have been locked up and left to rot since 2018. Mrs Tii lamented that 'when you go at the back of the locked toilet facility, there is a bush where people defecate indiscriminately, and asid e from that place, there is a urinary pit just where they sell vegetables that people have turned into a toilet to defecate inside which l will say is unhygienic for us,' she added 'I personally don't know the benefit of the locked toilet facility here in the market because it has not yielded the purpose for which it was built and has even started deteriorating as children have turned it into a playground with other illicit activities taking place in the night,' she added. State of the facilities It was all joy, a sign of relief, and an end to the frustration when the Nabdam District Assembly started the construction of 10-seater water closet toilet facilities in each of the six communities under the government`s special initiative of one million dollars per constituency in 2018. These toilet facilities are located at Pelungu, Kongo, Nangodi, Zanlerigu, Gane-Asonge, and Sakoti markets with the aim of contributing to ending open defecation and ensuring good sanitation practices cannot be achieved. A visit by the Ghana News Agency observed that these facilities did not only have washrooms in them, but also contained baths and resting places with the expectation not only to serve travellers, businessmen, residents, and the market, but also transporters from neighbouring countries, including Burkina Faso, Togo, and Mali, among others, who ply the Nabdam roads for places of convenience, and also boost the Internally Generated Fund (IGF) of the Assembly. The toilet facilities are about 90 per cent completed with the exception of being connected to the National Grid and running water for them to be used However, since 2019, the facilities have been abandoned and become convenient places for animals and illicit activities, with their painted walls, ceilings, and tarred floors deteriorated Concerns The absence of a single toilet facility in all markets in the district has been one of the major challenges affecting economic activities which opinion leaders have expressed concern. Naab Sierig Soore Sobil IV, the Ch ief of the Pelungu community, bemoaned that the absence of a toilet facility did not present a good image of the Pelungu market and was a source of worry as it had opened the floodgates for open defecation. In his efforts to end the open defecation menace, he initiated the construction of a 20-seater toilet facility through mobilisation of funds from the community`s annual 'Yagle Kuure' festival which had stalled for lack of funds after it was constructed up to the window level. Mr Clement Sobateng, the Assemblyman of the Pelungu Electoral Area, said he had on many occasions reported the issue of the lack of toilet facilities in the market and the lack of attention to complete the $1 million per constituency toilet facility to the District Assembly but had not received any positive response. 'The facility is deteriorating, and any further delay would mean that the initial budget would not hold since more funds would be needed to work on it,' he added. Mr Cletus Daeeta, the Assembly member of Kongo West, n oted that the absence of a toilet facility in the market was a major problem for traders and a threat to their health, giving rise to open defecation in the market. According to him 'the rate of open defecation within the market square was alarming, so much that people were even defecating in the urinal meant for only urinating just because of the lack of a functioning toilet facility in the market.' 'I had to write to the assembly to come and close it down because it is just within the market where they are selling vegetables, and it is not healthy for us as a people to be buying vegetables in the glare of human faecal matter.' LACK OF FUNDS Ms Agnes Anamoo, the Nabdam District Chief Executive, acknowledged the concerns of the intended beneficiaries and stakeholders of the project and the struggles of the traders particularly women in the various markets. She, however, explained that the projects stalled for lack of funds to construct mechanised boreholes and connect them to the national grid for their operationalisation. 'I want to plead with them to bear with us because we have an interest in completing the projects once funds are made available,' she added. Impact of open defecation According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of 2022, over 1.5 billion people still do not have basic sanitation services such as private toilets and latrines, and 419 million of these still defecate in the open like gutters, behind bushes or into open water bodies. In Ghana, the World Health governing body said the sanitation situation was poor, with only 25 per cent having access to basic services, about 57 per cent using shared or public facilities and 18 per cent still defecating openly. It indicated that 7, 653 deaths were caused by WASH-related illness in 2019 in Ghana, with 21 people per day, and almost one person every hour dying from preventable WASH-related diseases. UNICEF has also revealed that there was a triple threat of water-related crisis endangering the lives of 190 million children alone in 10 African countries and though Ghana was not part of these countries, due to its proximity to the Sahel region and position as a safe haven for people displaced from the Sahel, it was going to be heavily affected, especially at the Northern Ghana. Recommendations and conclusion Not only is access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene basic human needs for health and wellbeing but the development of every country is hinged on the health of its people. This encompasses ensuring that systems are in place to ensure that people do not fall sick and die of preventable diseases which includes providing decent toilets in public places to end open defecation. Ghana would miss its contributory role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal Six target by 2030, aimed at ensuring adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all if prompt measures are not put in place to complete these projects. This, therefore, makes it crucial for the District Assembly and government to prioritise the completion of toilet fa cilities to bring relief to the traders and boost economic activity in the various markets. To the Pelungu market women, like other beneficiary communities, the construction of the toilet facility would have ended their long practice of open defecation and offered them some convenience in attending to nature`s call when the need arose. For residents, whose major source of drinking water was wells and boreholes, it was the surest way to give them hygienic water and a safe environment without human excreta. But these wishes, expectations, and assurances were nothing but short-lived glory, as the projects in all the communities have been left at the mercy of whether to rot, despite their structural completion at the end of the year 2019. Source: Ghana News Agency