Traditional Ruler Warns On Dangers Of Open Defecation

The Emir of Ningi in Bauchi State, Dr Yunusa Danyaya, has identified open defecation, especially in the rural communities, as a major cause of cholera and diarrhea in the country.

The Emir stated this on Wednesday in Makurdi at the National Sensitisation Workshop on Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) for Colleges of Health Technology and Environmental Health Officers in Nigeria.

Danyaya, who is also a former Chairman, Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON), stressed the need for the country to refocus attention on the creation of “Open Defecation Villages”.

Represented by Chief Anthony Ezekwesili, the Emir said: “there is need for us to refocus our attention from toilet construction for individual households to the creation of ‘Open Defecation Villages”.

He said the effort would help to reduce the environmental, health, economic and social implications of open defecation.

“Majority of disease cases reported in our health facilities today are sanitation-related and accounted for the death of thousands of Nigerians.

“Available statistics released recently by Federal Ministry of Health show that in 2008 alone, we had 1,429,230 cases of cholera with 4,535 deaths.’’

Within the same period, the Emir said, there were 1,390,934 cases of diarrhea resulting in 3,316 deaths, while hepatitis B recorded 11,554 cases with 80 deaths, and cerebro-spinal-meningitis recorded 8,888 cases with 710 deaths.

In her speech, the Minister of Environment, Hajia Hadiza Mailafia decried the morbidity and mortality profile in the country and ascribed the development to infections and parasitic diseases resulting from unsafe sanitation practices among the people.

She said the ministry had instituted regulatory and legislative frameworks and re-energised its Environmental Health and Sanitation Division of Pollution Control and Environmental Health Department, to ensure safe and healthy environment.

Mailafia called on the three tiers of government to institute effective and efficient measures, including community participation and empowerment of their environment units toward checking environmental challenges of the country.

The representative of UNICEF, Mr Bisi Agberemi, who later spoke with newsmen, expressed the organisation’s continued partnership with EHORECON “to achieve safe and healthy environment for all in Nigeria”.