The massive migration of people from rural areas to cities has led to overcrowding in most cities across West Africa, putting a huge burden on local authorities to provide basic social amenities. 

Poor sanitation, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is linked to transmission of diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera and dysentery, as well as typhoid, intestinal worm infections and polio. As one of the African countries grappling with this problem, Ghana is currently creating innovative ways to improve its sanitation situation. Moshie Zongo is one of the oldest suburbs in Ghana’s second largest city, Kumasi. Despite it being in the heart of one of Ghana’s popular cities, about 83% of households living in Moshie Zongo do not have access to private toilets.

To minimize the number of cases related to hygiene issues in the community, the Mayor of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Honorable Samuel Pyne, has initiated a project to provide all residents within his municipality with toilet facilities. The initiative was one of the winning ideas of the UNDP-Bloomberg Global Mayors Challenge. Not only will this project provide toilet facilities for the people of Moshie Zongo, but it will also contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 3 on “ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages” and Goal 6, on “ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”.

As part of activities to drive the initiative, KMA will train some unemployed youths to design and build the toilets and establish a revolving fund to provide homes with low-interest loans so they can purchase these facilities. Speaking at the project kick-off, the Mayor of the KMA, Honorable Samuel Pyne, expressed his gratitude to Bloomberg Philanthropies and its implementing partners – the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Delivery Associates, for their support to the project and pledged his commitment to ensure that the project is successful. 

“The vision of this project is to provide all residents of Moshie Zongo access to household toilets. I am particularly happy for every individual in this community. After this facility is duly opened, individuals in this community wouldn’t struggle to access toilets,” noted Honorable Samuel Pyne.

He also encouraged the team to implement all project components efficiently and in a manner that will ensure its sustainability. The community leaders and the youth and women involved in the project's pilot phase, pledged to fully support the project implementation.

The 2021 Global Mayors Challenge was a competition designed to identify innovative, impactful, and replicable ideas led by municipalities worldwide to tackle the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on lives of people within their municipality.