By Kwame Asare Boadu, Kumasi
THE carrying of human excreta for a living still exists in Kumasi despite the ban on the use of pan latrines by the city authorities.
Investigations by Graphic Nsempa revealed that people, specifically men, were still engaged to convey human excreta from pan latrines in some homes.
However, the sub metropolitan administrations said they were not aware of the situation.
Where the conveyors deposit the faeces remains a question which needs an answer.
The likelihood that they dump them in streams and rivers is very strong.
This pose serious danger to the health of people downstream who use the rivers and streams as their main sources of drinking water.
It was realised that it would be extremely impossible for the carriers to dump the faeces at Dompoase where the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has its final disposal site.
Even the security mounted at the final disposal site prevents any outsider from using the facility.
The investigations conducted in the sub metropolitan areas of Kumasi established that some people still preferred using pan latrines to the Ventilated Improved Pits (VIPs)
Households have been asked to discard pan latrines for the VIPs to be constructed at subsidised costs for them.
However, some people, for reasons including lack of funds, have decided to continue to use the banned pan latrines.
It is disturbing in this 21st Century, for human beings to be contracted to carry human faeces for a living.
A private legal practitioner in Accra, Nana Agyei Ampofo, has already filed an action at the Supreme Court seeking a declaration that the engagement of human beings to carry human excreta was against the spirit and letter of the Constitution.
He based his argument on the fact that the exercise was against the human rights of the carriers.
The legal practitioner cited the health hazards that the carriers face from carrying the faeces as some of the reasons behind his action.
Those who carry the human faeces undertake the work mostly in the night.
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