BY ANAYO OKOLI
UMUAHIA—THE National Orientation Agency, NOA, in collaboration with UNICEF has embarked on health enlightenment programme for rural dwellers on the need to stop open defecation as a way of enhancing their health status.
The programme was taken to Alaoma autonomous community, Omoba in Isiala Ngwa South Council Area of Abia State, where they said that the Federal Government was intensifying efforts to see that communities across the country desist from open defecation in 2030.
Addressing the rural dwellers from Alaoma Autonomous Community, Omoba, while holding a Social Mobilisation Technical Committee, SOMTEC, outreach, a NOA/UNICEF resource person from Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, RUWASSA, Mr. Theophilus Opara, disclosed that open defecation is still being practised in Abia as no community in the state has been declared open defecation-free.
According to Opara, open defecation is going on, on a large scale in Nigeria as about 70 per cent still practice open defecation due to ignorance of the health effects on society.
He said that there was need for urgent intervention to end it.
He lamented that in spite of Federal Government’s interventions so far in some communities in Nigeria, most communities still practice open defecation.
“There is need to encourage open discussions about open defecation, so that people can be aware of its dangers and scale up hygiene in the rural communities.
“The Federal Government in conjunction with UNICEF is trying to make every community open defecation free in 2030. By the year 2025, the activities that will lead to this must have started in earnest.
“Take for instance; there is no community in Abia State that is open defecation free. Only two local government areas in Cross River State have been declared open defecation free.
“So, the only way Nigeria can attain open defecation free status, is that every household must have its own toilets”, Opara said.
Speaking also another resource person from International Federation of Female Lawyers, FIDA, Mrs. Salome Akabuike said UNICEF condemns at anything that humiliates or limits the right of women in the society.
According to her, UNICEF in doing it job, is guided by the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, all aimed at improving the lots of women and children.
In his remarks, the traditional ruler of Alaoma autonomous community, Eze Gordy Nwakanma Nwankpa, lauded the NOA/UNICEF for the enlightenment programme and challenged subjects to put to practice all that they have been exposed to, especially as it regards to Essential Family Practices, EFPs.
