By Abubakar Baba Ahmad
Stakeholders in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene WASH Sector in Bauchi State have identified the Construction of Improved Toilets and Behavioural Change among people as the most difficult components in the campaign against Open Defecation.
This is so because getting people to change their lifelong routine and behavioural pattern is more taxing, time and resource consuming.
With over 1400 communities, Bauchi LGA has now joined eight other local governments to include Dass, Warji, Shira, Gamawa, Bogoro, Ganjuwa, Toro and Katagum out of a total of 20 in the state, to be certified Open Defecation Free ODF.
Bauchi being the ninth on the list, with the prospect of additional three LGAs awaiting certification from UNICEF and other stakeholders, the campaign towards ensuring that people are compliant to safe hygiene practices is far from meeting the acceptable standards.
Speaking to Radio Nigeria, one of the stakeholders and General Manager Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency RUWASSA, Adamu Sabo highlighted some of the challenges and successes recorded in the cause of the campaign especially in the area of sensitisation and setting up of structures at various levels.
Adamu Sabo who listed behaviour change and collapse of toilets during rainy season as some of the challenges encountered, noted that structures such as WASH Unit, WASH Committee WASHCOM, Village Level Operation and Maintenance VLOM, Local Area Mechanics LAMs, and Volunteer Hygiene Promoters VHPs were instrumental to the success and backbone to the entire process at the community level.
"We had engagement with all the communities, you can remember that we have over 1400 plus communities in Bauchi, we had to visit all these communities, engage with them, facilitate them to realise the dangers that is associated with Open Defecation. When they realise by themselves then they take collective decision to stop open defecation and that could be by constructing Improved Latrines, and that isn't exactly what led to Bauchi to become ODF", he explains.
On the issue of sustainability, the GM RUWASSA said the Sanitation Marketing which aims to provide improved toilets through Micro-Finance Institutions MFIs saddled with the provision soft loans to households for improved latrine construction through Toilet Business Owners TBOs and the Bye Laws meant to serve as instrument to penalise defaulters are all geared towards sustaining the gains recorded.
He said Community Mobilisation through advocacy between traditional and religious institutions, key actors from both government and private sectors ensured that the communities realised the dangers associated with Open Defecation OD, which led to the collective decision of stopping the menace by constructing Improved Latrines.
"Stopping of OD is all about behaviour change which takes longer time, it doesn't happen overnight but in a gradual process, so that is one of the challenges and in the cause of doing so people may deny what you're trying to do, make them to realise because they're ignorant of why you're doing that, but along the way they begin to realise the need for toilet, constructing Improved Toilets and to make use of the toilets", RUWASSA GM notes.
The Chairman Toilet Owners and Operators Bauchi LGA, Ibrahim Kabo Bidu said his members have from inception of the campaign last three years been part of the UNICEF trigger team that went round all the over 1400 communities to sensitise people on the dangers of OD.
Ibrahim Bidu who said part of their business plan is to build a public toilet at an interval of 150 metres within the metropolitan city, urged people to embrace the toilet culture of cats by adhering to good personal hygiene in order to guarantee their health and wellbeing.
"I am calling on people that achieving the ODF status is not the problem but sustainability of this status. Government have done their own part, they are spending money creating awareness. So I want to call upon the general public in the state through the district heads, our traditional and our religious leaders so that they should give us more support to put more effort in sustaining the ODF status in the state", Bidu appeals
The State Chairman of the Toilet Business Owners said the state government in partnership with Water Aid have adopted another toilet technology which takes care of all segments of the society from women, children, PLWDs and the aged called Climate resilient and User Friendly Toilets.
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