Anambra East LGA targets open defecation free status by May
The Transition Committee Chairman, Anambra East Local Government Area, Mr. Pius Ifeadi, has expressed optimism that the Council Area will achieve and be declared Open Defecation Free by the end of May 2018.
The Chairman, who stated this while speaking during the World Toilet Day at the Local Government Headquarters Otuocha, noted that the celebration focused on the link between sanitation and water, adding that lack of access to clean water, poor sanitation practices and diseases associated with them are among the underlying causes of death among millions of children.
Mr. Ifeadi called on Environmental Health Officers to complement the efforts of European Union, UNICEF and WASH Unit Staff of the Local Government on Routine house-to-house inspection.
He appealed to all and sundry to join the world in the campaign against open defecation.
Contributing, the UNICEF/WASH Consultant of the Local Government Area, Amina Ominyi stressed on the need to stop open defecation due to health challenges associated with it.
She disclosed that there is an implementation of water Safety-Plan which teaches people how to secure their water in order to drink clean water, adding that Anambra state has projected Nigeria to the world by being the only state that has commenced the implementation of the water safety plan successfully.
On her part, the WASH coordinator Anambra East Local Government Area, Mrs Helen Offor, taught the gathering how a household can build an affordable modern toilet facility and called on the communities to contact WASH Unit of the Local Government in event of damage on their boreholes for trained Local government Area Mechanics to repair them, and organize security operatives to guard the borehole against vandalisation.
Demonstration of hand-washing after making use of the toilet and a practical lesson on building an affordable toilet facility within a household formed the high lights of the event.
Stories by John Ndu,
Awka
