283 Communities Certified Open Defecation-free in Kaduna – Official
By Alex Uangbaoje, Kaduna
Kaduna State Government, through, Malam Bashir Lere, the Director General, Kaduna State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA), said 283 communities in 11 local governments of the state have been certified Open Defecation-Free (ODF).
Lere made this disclosed this in Kaduna, during a Mid-Year Review meeting organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the Kaduna State Ministry of Budget and Planning on various interventions implemented to improve the lives of women and children in the state.
He added that, 363 communities were sampled in the 11 implementing LGAs of the Sanitation, Hygiene and Water in Nigeria (SHAWN II) project, out of which, 283 were certified ODF from January to June.
According to him, the are; Chikun, Kubau, Kachia, Lere, Soba, Jaba, Jema’a, Kajuru, Zangon Kataf, Giwa and Kudan.
Lere, also disclosed that 402,578 people had access to sanitation, with 337,840 people living in ODF certified communities.
He noted that 432,250 people had access to improved water source following the construction and rehabilitation of 932 hand pump boreholes and 77 solar-powered boreholes.
He added that “95 primary schools were provided with gender sensitive sanitation facilities through the construction of 570 latrines, providing access to improved sanitation to 21, 751 pupils.
“In the same vein, 636 latrines were constructed in 108 health centres, providing access to gender sensitive sanitation facilities to 19,440 people.”
SHAWN project is being funded by United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) with counterpart funding from Kaduna State Government.
The review meeting also looked at achievements and challenges in the first six moths and identified areas that might need adjustment for the remaining six months of 2017.
