Hygiene: Agency Tasks C ’River On Counterpart Funds

The Cross River State Gov
ernment has been called upon to provide its counterpart funds to enable more local councils benefit from the rural sanitation and hygiene programme to reduce open defecation.
The Desk Officer, Global Sanitation Fund (GSF), Mr Joe Ekpata, made the call in Calabar on Tuesday at the ongoing monitoring mission of the Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion in Nigeria (RUSHPIN).
The RUSHPIN programme is a Global Sanitation Fund (GSF) programme, which seeks to increase sanitation coverage by 100 per cent.
It also seeks to attain a positive and sustained hygiene and behavioural change.
He said that the payment of the counterpart funding has been a challenge, saying this had not made the state to include three more local governments in the GSF programme.
“Cross River Government is to provide counterpart fund of N337 million for the replication of the programme in Akamkpa, Obudu and Ogoja Local Government Areas.
“We are calling on them to bring their contribution to enable us implement this programme to meet targets on basic hygiene and sanitation to reduce preventable deaths,” he said.
He said three councils: Abi, Bekwarra and Obanliku were benefiting from the GSF programme, with positive results to show from it.
Ekpata said that through the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) programme, more communities had been empowered to improve their sanitation and hygiene practices.
He said since inception of the GSF programme in the state, no fewer than 205 communities had been triggered on CLTS practices.
He stated that 36 of these communities had claimed to be open defecation-free.
Ekpata also said that the GSF programme has also led to the construction of 536 household toilets, adding that this has led to a reduction in water-borne diseases in the communities.
The desk officer stressed the need to strengthen collaboration with all stakeholders to avoid duplication of efforts.