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Ekiti State directs schools, MDAs to key into 2022 open defecation-free government policy

By Ayodele Afolabi, Ado-Ekiti
18 October 2019   |   4:07 am
The Ekiti State government has restated its commitment to stop open defecation before 2022 by taking the campaign to institutions of learning and public places.

The Ekiti State government has restated its commitment to stop open defecation before 2022 by taking the campaign to institutions of learning and public places.

It said that it had set up a task force across all the state’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and also spreading the campaign to schools on the need to implement rules guiding Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) to halt open defecation.

The state’s Commissioner for Public Utilities, Mr. Bamidele Faparusi, who spoke with journalists in Ado-Ekiti yesterday at an occasion marking the 2019 edition of WASH, advocated collaborative efforts among all stakeholders to achieve 2022 target of open defecation-free state.

Faparusi said the present administration would step up efforts by paying advocacy visits to local councils and market places, establish WASH committee across MDAs and develop an action plan to achieving the target.

He said WASH programme was an initiative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) targeted at promoting hygiene in the society, which he said, Ekiti had keyed into.

The commissioner, who commended the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) for its diligence and proactive efforts at stemming the tide of open defecation across primary schools in the state, said:

“The programme is part of the advocacy and awareness exercise aimed at protecting the state, especially pupils from primary schools across the state.”

He, therefore, tasked public institutions, organisations and bodies charged with the provision, treatment and distribution of water, to always ensure that they carry out effective monitoring of pipes conveying it to different homes, hospitals and industries, to ensure that only safe and clean water is provided for human consumption.

Meanwhile, Ekiti State Head of Service, Mr. Ayodeji Ajayi, has expressed the determination of the current administration under Fayemi to deploy practical steps at ensuring that the state achieves its target of attaining the status of open-defecation-free state by the year 2022.

Ajayi, while speaking at the second meeting of Ekiti State task group on sanitation (STGS) and body of Permanent Secretaries in Ado-Ekiti, noted that the nation at large was regressive in terms of basic hygiene principles, as open defecation has become a topical issue in recent past.

Ayodeji said that basic hygiene facilities were practically not in place as expected, thereby diminishing the humanity in our existence.

He, therefore, urged stakeholders to take the campaign against open defecation with the seriousness it deserves.

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