NAN-AE-11
Communities
By Tosin Kolade
Makurdi, July 12, 2017 (NAN) No fewer than 465,689 persons in Benue 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.
Mr Ella Ejembi, General Manager, Benue Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (BERWASSA), said this at on Wednesday 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 toward the evolution of an open defecation-free environment in the state so as to scale up of the sanitation and hygiene programme in the state and meet 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 became open defecation- free.
He said that through the implementation of the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) scheme, communities in the local government areas had received the behavioural change message.
Ejembi 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 parts 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 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.
Mr Emmanuel Awe, the Chairman, Programme Coordinating Mechanism, RUSHPIN, said that the aim of the meeting was to discuss the ways forward in meeting the sanitation and hygiene targets and the SDGs by 2030.
Awe said the Federal Government has shown commitment in meeting the SDGs by inaugurating the Partnership for Expanded Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH) Programme.
He said that 12 states had shown interest by signing the protocol for the uptake of the PEWASH programme, saying this would go a long way in mobilising the stakeholders’ efforts and channel them toward common goals, targets and standards.
He, however, stressed that it was important for the beneficiary states of Benue and Cross River to release their counterpart funds for the sanitation and hygiene programme.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the RUSHPIN programme focuses on scaling up the sanitation and hygiene agenda in Benue and Cross River states. (NAN)
TAK/OOK
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