Trainers
By Tosin Kolade
Abuja, May 30, 2018 (NAN) The Federal Ministry of Water Resources has commenced the training of 18 persons to train young persons in Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) so as to end open defecation in the country.
Mrs Chizoba Opara, a Scientific Officer in the ministry, made this known at a meeting of the National Task Group on Sanitation (NTGS) in Abuja on Wednesday.
She said that the training became necessary following the dearth of trainers that would facilitate the training of people in efforts to scale up sanitation and hygiene in the country.
She said that only eight trainers in CLTS were currently available in Nigeria, adding that this had somewhat affected the progress so far recorded in the campaign against open defecation in the country.
Opara said that with the availability of more trainers, the goal of stepping down lessons learnt in the campaign to others would be achieved.
Besides, Mrs Ayaba Kogbara, an official of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, gave a report on activities of the NTGS in the hand washing campaign.
She said that the ministry and other stakeholders had been to train 100 schools and 30 primary health care centres in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in hand washing.
She said that the training was necessary in order to encourage and educate the citizens, particularly the youth, on the need to wash their hands at critical times.
Kogbara stressed that the importance of hand washing at critical times could not be over-emphasised, as it had the tendency to break faecal-oral transmission of diseases, especially among young persons.
She, however, said the group was carrying out the monitoring of schools to see how the students embraced the hand washing culture, which was promoted in the campaign.
Mr Emmanuel Eze, Deputy Director, Sanitation, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, gave an update on the National Open Defecation Free campaign in the country.
He said that the Federal Government was launching a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Fund to accomplish the goals of the campaign.
He said that the fund would cater for the needs of all tiers of government in efforts to scale up the WASH campaign across the country.
Eze said that state governments would be encouraged to play specific roles in the campaign.
Also speaking, the UNICEF representative, Mr Sakiru Otusanya, stressed the need for all State Task Groups on Sanitation to be functional and alive to their responsibilities in meeting the WASH needs of their communities.
He, however, said that it was important for the WASH units in all parts of the country to be transformed into full-fledged departments to enable them to have a budget line and function effectively. (NAN)
TAK/MOL/OOK
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Edited by Mustapha Lamidi and Dayo Komolafe