No fewer than 32 communities in Igboetiti Local Government area of Enugu state on Wednesday received certificates for achieving “Open Defecation Free (ODF)” status in the state.
Enugu state government believes that the attainment of the status, diseases associated with the open defecation would soon be history in Enugu state.
Mr Charles Egumgbe, the Enugu state Commissioner for Water Resources, said with the attainment of the status, diseases associated with the open defecation would soon be history in Enugu state.
“We have gathered here today to celebrate 32 communities from Igboetiti Local Govenment that have achieved ODF and it is worthy to note that out of 30 communities verified recently 13 scaled through, while 19 were declared earlier.
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“Enugu State feel blessed that we have passionate development partners like, Water Aid Nigeria, UNICEF, WHO, DFID, Bill Gate Foundation and other non-governmental organisations both local and international who have been collaborating with the state to realised this objective
“We also wish to use this opportunity to urge those communities who are yet to attain ODF status to emulate these communities that are celebrating today,’’ he said.
Mrs Felicia Ikpeama, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Water, expressed joy over the achievement and advised that the situation and sanitation should be sustained.
“One thing is to build toilet and another is to maintain it because our problem is maintenance, as we have built sanitary toilets let us seek ways of providing water otherwise it will still be unhealthy for human use,’’ Ikpeama said.
The Chairman of Igboetiti, Mr Malachy Agbo, said that cases of diseases associated with open defecation had reduced drastically in the locality.
“When this programme started here some years back, we witnessed all sort of diseases in the communities, but today the diseases have reduced, showing that we have done much.
“We have done much in the sense that among five local government areas that keyed into the sanitation programme, we have the highest number of communities that attained the status, but we still need to do more,’’ Agbo said.
Agbo promised to do his best to ensure that other communities that had not attained the status would do so as soon as possible.
Mrs Janet Ngene, the Coordinator, Community Health Initiative (CHI) Nigeria, said that Igboetiti’s achievement was worthy of emulation.
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Ngene said that she was not surprised with the achievement as efforts were made to get Igboetiti to receive much attention to achieve ODF.
She praised the people of Igboetiti, noting that out of the 44 communities that had achieved the status in the state, the local government area produced 32 communities.
The team has honoured eight communities in Nkanu East and One in Igboeze North before their visit to Igboetiti.
Meanwhile, ZENITHBLOG.com reports the recent arraignment of some staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
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