World Toilet Day 2025 is a reminder that safe sanitation is more than infrastructure. It is dignity, health and opportunity. While millions around the world still lack access to a clean, private toilet, organisations like Clean Team Ghana (CTG) are proving what is possible when innovation meets community need.
As the world marks World Toilet Day 2025, under the campaign theme “Sanitation in a changing world,” the spotlight is on the urgent need to protect and expand access to safe sanitation as we’ll always need the toilet.
Across the globe, billions still live without a safe toilet, with women, girls, and the most vulnerable communities bearing the greatest burden. In Ghana, Clean Team Ghana (CTG) is leading the way in transforming urban sanitation, ensuring that access to dignified, affordable toilets become a reality for low-income households.
Innovating sanitation in Kumasi
Founded in 2012 together with Unilever UK and Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), CTG has championed container-based sanitation (CBS), providing in-home toilets on a flexible subscription model.
Over the years, the enterprise has expanded into toilet construction, maintenance, and emptying services, reaching more households while creating sustainable revenue streams.
“Markets evolve, technologies shift, and customer needs change. In Clean Team, this has been our story, but our mission stays the same: to ensure every household has a safe place to go and the dignity that comes with it.”
Samuel Opoku, CEO of Clean Team Ghana
Adapting to changing needs
In 2023, CTG navigated a major shift when the World Bank-funded Greater Kumasi Sanitation and Water Project subsidised 33,000 biodigester toilets for low-income households. As many CBS users opted for the new technology, CTG embraced the opportunity to diversify its services and support its customers to improve their level of sanitation services.
CTG’s strategy goes beyond installations. The enterprise is enhancing marketing, expanding emptying services, and transitioning households from CBS to biodigesters. The enterprise is also exploring avenues to offer wider household credits for biodigester toilet installations, making safe, modern sanitation more accessible.
Driving progress with clear metrics
Clean Team Ghana has also been selected to benefit from the “Scaling Climate-Resilience WASH Programme”, which strengthens water and sanitation SMEs across West Africa and the Horn of Africa. Through Results-Based Grants for Scale, CTG receives tailored support that links financing to verified outcomes, helping the enterprise grow sustainably while improving access to safe sanitation in vulnerable communities.
A results-based grant further accelerates CTG’s impact, with targets linked to key performance areas to be achieved by 2027. Through the results-based grant, CTG will improve their financial sustainability through the maintenance of their core CBS service alongside the expansion of their biodigester product and other revenue streams. By the end of the grant, Clean Team Ghana will have adapted to the changing market preferences and be able to serve multiple levels of the “sanitation ladder.”
Linking local action to global goals
World Toilet Day 2025 reminds us that safe sanitation is a human right and a cornerstone of public health, gender equality, and environmental protection. In a world facing ageing infrastructure, rising demand, and climate impacts, resilient sanitation solutions are critical.
CTG’s work aligns perfectly with this message: its biodigesters and CBS services are designed to be safe, reliable, and adaptable, even in the face of climate-related challenges. By investing in infrastructure, maintenance, and financing, CTG is building a model of sanitation that protects communities and empowers households to live healthier, more dignified lives.
Looking ahead
As CTG scales its services, it aims to reach over 14,000 people with safely managed sanitation by 2027. In a changing world, one thing is constant: we’ll always need the toilet. Thanks to innovative approaches like those of Clean Team Ghana, more people in Kumasi and beyond can look forward to a future where safe, private, and resilient sanitation is within everyone’s reach.
As World Toilet Day 2025 highlights the global urgency of safe sanitation, Clean Team Ghana stands out as a model of what determined, community-rooted innovation can achieve. By blending flexibility with long-term vision, the organisation is on track to bring safely managed sanitation to more than 14,000 people by 2027.
The journey is not simple. Markets shift, customer needs evolve, and financial sustainability takes persistence. Yet CTG’s commitment remains steady. From container-based toilets to biodigesters, from credit access to maintenance services, CTG’s work speaks to a simple truth: everyone deserves a clean, dignified toilet at home.
And when that need is met, everything else becomes a little easier.