Open defecation contributes to malnutrition among children – GHS

The status of child malnutrition in the Region has been linked, according to the Upper West Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), to open defecation (OD).

52% of Ghanaians used OD in 2022, according to the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS), which the GHS deemed to be a concerning scenario.

This was said during a presentation by Mr. Yussif Abubakari of the Nutrition Unit, Wa Municipal Health Directorate, at a RICCS (Regional Inter-agency Coordinating Committee on Sanitation) meeting in Wa.

As he put it, “You can have good food to eat, but when there is an infection the nutrients cannot be absorbed properly.” WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) plays a significant influence in improving nutrition outcomes, he claimed.

According to Environmental Health and Sanitation Department (EHSD) data, 13 villages in the region had achieved Open Defecation Free (ODF) status in 2022, but none had done so in the first half of 2023. This means that 815 out of 1,167 localities in the region had reached ODF status.

“When there is open defecation a lot of it goes into the streams where people fetch water from, and you can get infections through that and when there are infections the absorption of nutrients within the human system is affected.

“Once your system cannot absorb all the nutrients directly from the food, it means that the body will not get the required quantity of nutrients to function as required,” Mr Abubakari explained.

Children, he said, were the ones who suffered the most from OD because they required more nutrients to grow, and when their bodies were unable to absorb them from food due to an infection brought on by OD, that created a nutritional gap and undernutrition conditions like stunting and wasting in kids.

He also listed inadequate exclusive breastfeeding, a delayed start to nursing, and a high level of food poverty as other factors of malnutrition.

The Upper West Regional Focal Person on WASH, Mr. Dennis Menance Bayuo, made the observation that it was critical for stakeholders to work together in concert to solve environmental challenges in order to promote the health and well-being of the people in the region.

He emphasized the need for greater and coordinated stakeholder initiatives to enhance community sanitation conditions, particularly access to restroom facilities.

According to Mr. Issahaque Serikpera Naa, the CEO of Yison Tech Hub, the Hub is collaborating with the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) to increase access to sanitary facilities in 20 villages in the Nandom and Lambussie Districts.

Other organizations that presented their interventions towards improving access to WASH in the region, were Global Communities, Vibrant Village Foundation, SNV, and the Centre for Advancing Rural Opportunities (CARO)-Ghana.