Oyo State Declares Emergency on Sanitation Sector
Olubunmi Osoteku, Ibadan
The Oyo State Government, has, on Thursday, launched the Open Defecation Free (ODF) Roadmap and declared an emergency on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector.
This forms part of efforts to achieve an ODF environment and the Clean Nigerian Campaign which sets 2028 as the deadline for the state to attain the status.
According to the Roadmap, Oyo State is committing to ensure coverage of over 100 health facilities and over 7,000 schools, just in 2022 and similar numbers every year to 2028.
In his remarks, the deputy governor, Bayo Lawal, who represented Governor Seyi Makinde, said the government keyed into the project in line with its vision to make the state clean and to eradicate the challenge of open defecation, charging residents of the state on the importance of a safe, clean and healthy environment.
He said: “Statistically, by ranking, UNICEF said Oyo State is second in open defecation index. That is too bad for us and I think the purpose of this gathering is to create awareness so that we will know where we stand in things of this nature. I want to say that, as a government, we embrace this challenge frontally.”
Lawal asserted that having a healthy environment requires the effort of everyone, disclosing that despite the challenges of waste disposal being faced in the metropolis, the Ministry of Environment, Waste Management Board and the rest are doing their best to ensure that refuse is cleared regularly but a lot more needs to be done in terms of creating awareness.
Since Oyo state is singled out as a pilot state for UNICEF projects around western states and its activities are more in the state, he called on UNICEF to situate its office in Oyo State because its presence is needed very strongly in the state, and appealed to UNICEF to spread its pilot scheme to all Local Government areas in the state.
“ Legislation is key to driving whatever policies government puts in place. We will ensure that sooner than later, the bills that are being worked upon will be looked into by government and the State House of Assembly, with a view to formulating, correcting and putting in adequate legislation that will take care of not only environmental cleanliness but even those who will run foul of whatever policies government puts in place,” Lawal said.
A former Governor of the state, Rashidi Ladoja, said achieving an Open Defecation Free Oyo State is possible and assured that he would engage other community leaders to ensure the feat is attained, noting, however, that the 2028 set target seemed too long in view of the negative implications of open defecation on the people and the environment at large.
In his remarks, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, Mrs Esther Walson-Jack, said the development of the state Roadmap provides a clear direction on the plan to end open defecation in any state, as advocated during the national launch of the ‘Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet’ campaign in November 2019.
Adamu stated: “With one third of the population without access to basic water supply services and more than half of the population without basic sanitation services, we all must redouble our efforts and work together in order to meet the nation’s water supply, sanitation and hygiene needs and make good progress towards achieving the SDG water and sanitation targets”, Adams stated.
In her remarks, Chief of WASH, UNICEF, Jane Bevan, said various studies have revealed that with safe defecation and appropriate hand washing, it is possible to break more that 50 percent of the faeco-oral transmission routes and prevent diseases like typhoid, worm infestations, conjunctivitis, cholera and diarrhoeal diseases.
She disclosed that UNICEF, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, is supporting Ona Ara Local Government Area to pilot community-led total sanitation that would hopefully result in the first ODF LGA in the state.
Earlier, the Chairman, Oyo State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (OYORUWASSA), Najeem Omirinde, said that the Clean Nigeria Campaign is a transgenerational action-packed programme aimed at mobilising the populace towards imbibing the culture of safe and sustainable sanitation.
He appreciated the United Nations through UNICEF and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources for assisting the Oyo State Government in its effort to achieve an Open Defecation Free status.
The event, which held under the Chairmanship of the Deputy Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Muhammad Fadeyi, had in attendance the Minister of Water Resources, Sulaiman Adamu, Ex-Governor Rashidi Ladoja, traditional rulers, community leaders, market leaders and international partners, among others.
