An assessment of the practice of open defecation conducted by the sanitation unit in the 26 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in December, 2016 revealed that the Tamale metropolis had the highest percentage of people engaged in open defecation.

Alhaji Issahaku Alhassan, Northern Regional Coordinating Director revealed this at the launch of the second phase of the ODF League Table in Tamale yesterday.

The ODF league table is a bi-annual wash technical assessment and ranking of performance of MMDAs, in fighting open defecation in their respective MMDAs.

Alhaji Alhassan was not so enthused about the performance of some of the old and big districts in the fight against open defecation and thereby entreated them to double up their efforts.

He commended the authorities of the Mion district which retained the first position on the league table with least percentage of open defecation in the region.

The regional coordinating director was of the view that despite the efforts the various development partners and NGOs have invested in the area of sanitation, through Community Led Total Sanitation CLTS the region placed second with the highest practice of open defecation in the country

Alhaji Alhassan said over 30 Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) NGOs have adopted the CLTS approach as a strategy to improved sanitation through behaviour change and it was imperative for collective efforts to ensure it success.

He emphasised that improving sanitation and stopping open defecation was a dimension of development, stressing that absence of poor sanitation normal lead to loss of lives.

Moin, Nanumba North, Karaga, and Zabzugu districts were only districts that scored above 50 per cent on open defecation league table.

From: Yakubu Abdul-Majeed, Tamale.