The Upper West Region has ended the year 2020 with 779 communities out of a total of 1,169 communities in the region attaining Open Defecation Free (ODF) status, representing about 66 per cent coverage.

The Upper West Regional Inter-agency Coordinating Committee on Sanitation (RICCS) was supporting the Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs) to implement the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) and the Results-Based Financing (RBF), among other interventions.

UNICEF and Ghana government are jointly funding the RBF in selected MDAs in the region including Nadowli-Kaleo District and Jirapa Municipality.

Mr Alhassan Inusah Agambire, the Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator of the Upper West Regional Environmental Health and Sanitation Department, said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa on Wednesday.

He explained that RICCs was working assiduously to ensure that at least one district in the region attained a district-wide ODF by the end of 2021.

"... I am sure by the end of 2021 we should be moving beyond 70 per cent of communities that will be declared ODF," he added.

Mr Inusah indicated that the Environmental Health and Sanitation Department would build stronger collaboration with its partners, stakeholders and the various MDAs to scale-up advocacy towards improving access to good sanitation in the region.

He commended Nandom and Jirapa Municipalities as well as Nadowli-Kaleo District for their credible performances in combating open defecation.

He noted that the Wa Municipality, and Wa East and Sissala West districts were the worst-performing districts.