The Katsina State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA) says the outbreak of diseases has reduced drastically in the 24 local governments declared Open Defecation Free (ODF).
The RUWASSA Executive Director, Alhaji Aminu Dayyabu-Safana, made the disclosure in an interview with The Tide’s source in Katsina.
Dayyabu-Safana said there is also a level of ‘compliance’ and ‘sustainability’ in the certified communities across the affected local governments.
“Feedback we are receiving from our ward sanitation officers in the certified communities, indicates that there is a significant decrease in the number of people going to hospital for medical treatment, because we believe that open defecation is the largest contributor of diseases in rural communities.
“So, stopping it has really helped to improve the health status of people, and we measured that through the report we are getting from our ward sanitation officers,” he said.
In recognition of these achievements, he said, Katsina RUWASSA was honoured as the best performing agency in Nigeria in terms of sanitation during the just-concluded summit on World Toilet Day, 2022, in Abuja.
“The summit provided avenue for the relevant stakeholders in sanitation sector to create awareness on the use of toilets and the need for having clean environment in the world.
“You know Katsina State has been participating in the Clean Nigeria Campaign, it has ensured that at least 24 out of 34 local governments were certified Open Defecation Free (ODF), and this has made us second after Jigawa.
“If not because of the insecurity challenge affecting local governments, we will have became the first state to be certified ODF,” he said.
The Executive Director said with improvement in the fight against insecurity challenges, the remaining local governments would also be certified ODF, hopefully by the first quarter of 2023.