465,689 Persons Shun Open Defecation In Benue

No fewer than 465,689 persons in Benue State communities are now  living in open defecation free environment since the commencement of the Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion in Nigeria (RUSHPIN) programme in the state.
General Manager, Benue Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (BERWASSA), Mr Ella Ejembi, said this at the RUSHPIN programme coordinating meeting in Makurdi.
According to him, the figure reflects the impact of the RUSHPIN programme on the lives of people of the state.
Ejembi said that BERWASSA was striving towards the evolution of an open defecation free environment in the state so as to  meet up the sixth target of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He said the agency was currently working in Agatu, Gwer East and Logo Local Government Areas to ensure that the council areas become open defecation free.
Ejembi also said that the scheme and its message had encouraged the communities to build and use toilets, as part of efforts to reduce faecal-oral transmission of diseases that could crop up due to poor, unhygienic habits.
The general manager said that the challenges facing the agency included farmers herdsmen crises in part of Agatu Local Government Area, adding that such challenges led to a drawback in the progress made by some communities in practising CLTS.
He also listed some of the challenges facing energy as paucity of funds for operational materials, inadequate manpower and undue civil service bureaucracy.
Ejembi, however, gave the assurance that the state government was working toward the timely release of the counterpart funds in order to expand the RUSHPIN programme to cover three additional local government areas.
The Chairman, Programme Coordinating Mechanism, RUSHPIN, Mr Emmanuel Awe, said that the aim of the meeting was to discuss the way forward in meeting the sanitation and hygiene targets and the SDGs by 2030.

Amarachi Anene