By Odo Ogenyi, Uyo
Civil Society Organisations,CSOs have expressed reservations over the high rate of open defecation in Akwa Ibom and have tasked stakeholders to do more to reduce it’s negative impact on the health of the citizenry.
This is even as a survey carried out by the Ministry of Lands and Water Resources in conjunction with other relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) has ranked Akwa Ibom high in open defecation.
The Head of Department (HoD) in – charge of Water Resources Directorate, Ministry of Lands and Water Resources, Assumpta Udousoro, made this known yesterday at a Water,Sanitation and Health (WASH) forum organized by the African Centre for Human Development (AHDC) and other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Uyo.
Udousoro, revealed that only Nsit Atai, one out of the 31 Local Government Areas in the state has been certifed by the survey and given clean bill with open – defecation – free status.
The HoD stressed the need for a holistic action by stakeholders with effective sensitization, education and enlightenment programmes to stem the menace.
The Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), of AHDC, Prof. Gabriel Umoh, blamed the menace on poor funding of the water sector and implementation of the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) policy by government and other stakeholders.
Umoh pointed out that “only a paltry 1.31 percent of budgetary allocation goes to the water sector”, which he said requires between five to seven percent to tackle problems in the sector adequately.”
Urging governor Udom Emmanuel to reposition the sector in order to be able to address WASH challenges effectively, the Executive Director recalled that the House of Assembly had since July this year concluded work on the Water Bill and transmitted to the governor for assent, but regretted that “it is still yet to be signed into law.”
International interventionist agencies including USAID, EU, UNICEF and some local CSOs, he noted, had been committing to addressing challenges in the sector, but barely enough to fully mitigate the crisis which he added, poses epidemic to the population especially in the rural communities.
Participants at the forum in addition to identifying lack of enabling laws, non implementation of water budgets, poor health attitudes, lack of infrastructure and poverty as challenges facing WASH however called for increased media engagement and participation in raising awareness on the dangers of open defecation.
