By Abubakar Baba Ahmad
Bauchi State Government with the support of UNICEF through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has developed a Faecal Sludge Management FSM guideline and implementation strategy aimed at addressing Open Defecation as well as sustaining the certification of Open Defecation Free ODF status in the state.
Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) is the process of collecting, treating, transporting, and safely disposing of a mixture of human waste, water, and solid waste from onsite sanitation systems to avoid polluting surface and groundwater, spread pathogens, and cause health problems.
The Director General State Environmental Protection Agency BASEPA Dr Mahmood Muhammad Bose stated this while entertaining questions from a Group of journalists on the recent declaration by UNICEF that Bauchi LGA has attained the ODF status.
Dr Mahmood Bose said the Faecal Sludge Management FSM guideline and implementation strategy being the first to be developed in the country is Climate resilient and takes care of all climate risks such as flooding and windstorm.
He said the agency has conducted a stakeholders mapping for all key actors in the FSM were it identified both manual and mechanised Pit emptiers, registered them under a union and conducted series of capacity building on waste management practice.
According to him, all these are part of effort to ensure that all the stakeholders are conversant with the FSM document for easy management and sustainability of the ODF status.
"So all the entire value chain for the Faecal Sludge Management, in each value chain there are safety procedures. Some protocols that we always ensure to see that they are strictly adhered to", he expatiated.
The Director General further disclosed that as part of effort to sustain the Open Defecation Free ODF Status in Bauchi Local government area, the State Government has proposed two hundred million naira for the construction of thirty Climate resilient and User Friendly Toilets within the metropolitan city next year.
Dr Mahmood Bose said the Climate resilient and User Friendly Toilets were designed by Water Aid Nigeria under its Impact Accelerator Project as part of ODF sustainability strategy, noting that the plan is to construct the facilities at an interval of 150 metres for easy access and convenience.
While noting the agency's effort to ensure enforcement of safety protocol among the pit emptiers in the state, the Director General warned that its mobile court is always on standby to prosecute defaulters of the state environmental laws.
"These are areas where we are working very closely with the key actors, with the practitioners. We have a safety department which is always educating them on safety procedures, which is part of the guidelines".
"So we are watching them closely and see how we can educate them, how we can do some enforcement. Sometimes you have to do enforcement when you are talking of safety. It's not something that you can take for granted.
Especially it's something that has to do with protecting the people's health, not only the user, including the communities and the overall public health of our people. Safety from evacuation, safety from transportation, safety from containment, safety from reuse, safety from disposal", Dr Mahmood stated.
0 Comments