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Seven long years after the nation’s highest court of the land - the Supreme Court- outlawed the use of pan latrines in Accra, the status quo virtually remains the same.

The ruling in February 2008 mandated the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to ensure that pan latrines were completely faced out from the country by 2013.

Unfortunately, even today, pan latrines are still being used in some parts of Accra, especially Adabraka, Kotobabi, Bukom, Nima, Pig Farm, Madina, Accra New Town, among others.

It is generally believed that the Metropolitan Public Health Department of the assembly adopted a lackadaisical attitude towards the implementation of the court’s ruling hence the appalling situation the nation still has on hand. 

When Nana Adjei Ampofo, an Accra-based legal practitioner, dragged the AMA to court in 2008, he sought, among other things, a declaration form the court that the act or practice from the AMA in engaging the services of certain Ghanaians to carry faeces or toilet in pans on their heads was an affront to their dignity.

Furthermore, he prayed the court to retrain the AMA to abolish the practice, since in his view, it was not only cruel and inhumane but also degrading to the carriers as human beings. 

The court, in upholding the writ, directed the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to phase pan latrines out within five years – that is by 2013.

Consequently, it requested the AMA to construct 1,500 water closet and KVIP public places of convenience in the metropolis within the period, as well as arrange subsidies for those who will convert their pan latrines.

The court also directed the AMA to stop granting permits to building plans that do not have adequate provision for WC or KVIP and asked the Assembly to prosecute anyone who engages people to carry human excreta after the period.

In response to the court ruling, AMA boss, Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, in 2013, expressed the confidence that the assembly would eliminate the use of pan latrines in the metropolis.

The move, he said, formed part of the Assemblies efforts to improve sanitation conditions in the capital.

He said by the end of last quarter of 2014, the assembly had increased toilets in private homes by 11,000 and reduced pan latrines to 214.

But his assessment appears to be totally different from what actually pertains on the ground as the most recent report from the Ghana Statistical Service indicates that some people, still use pan or bucket latrines in Ghana whereas this has been declared globally as unsafe.