Open defecation: Coy, FCT RUWASSA take awareness campaign to Abuja motor parks, streets

By Stanley Onyekwere

In order to accelerate the attainment of Open Defecation Free (ODF) status by 2030, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has been urged to intensive sanitation awareness campaign , through more collaborations with concerned citizens and development partners.

This position was made yesterday in Abuja,  during a sensitisation on the dangers of open defecation tagged Clean FCT: Use the Toilet, organised by the FCT Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Directorate (RUWASSA) in collaboration with Wastebox, ltd, a waste management company.

At the event, which took off from Area 1 temporary motor park through Garki District,  several motorists, traders and passers-by in the area were offered talks and some hygiene/sanitation materials.

Addressing the people, Chika Ibe from Wastebox Ltd, urged the government (FCTA) to intensify partnership with ministries, agencies, private organisations and NGOs to collectively accelerate  ending open defecation before 2030, by improving intervention efforts especially sensitisation of the people on the dangers of the menace.

Ibe said, noted that people in rural areas where they have little or no toilets, a lot of persons do not have toilets, and due to that they defecate in open places, which can contaminate food, which can cause infections, bacteria, cholera and others threatening their lives.

She added that the company involved in evacuation of waste like sewer lines, recycling, cleaning, fumigation and portable toilet rental services for event centres having little or no toilets, as part of its corporate social responsibility is  looking for ways that stakeholders can end open defecation as soon as possible.

“Right now we know that Nigeria is one of the countries that are practising open defecation, and according to WHO open defecation is supposed to end in 2025, and we are in 2025, but now it has been extended to 2030. So, we are looking for ways to collectively end open defecation by 2030”, she stressed.

Also, speaking, Sanitation Officer, Esther Shettima, from Sanitation Department, FCT RUWASSA, decried that despite the availability of public toilets in strategic places across the FCT, open defecation still persists.

She added that in FCT, there is great improvement on ODF status from where it started, saying “if we relax and don’t do anything about it, we will not be able to achieve this the ODF status.

She said: “We are partnering with the company and other NGOs helping us to extend the messages to so many, to be sure that this ODF is achieved in Nigeria, because in the world now, Nigeria is among one of the leading countries that is still practising open defecation and we hope to end it very soon.

“We are moving from here to other places sensitising the people, so this is really helpful.

“It’s timely as we are in rainy season now, lots of diseases mostly cholera happen during rainy season. Open defecation mostly transfers through the waterways and all down, you don’t know where it comes from, it really timely.”