From Ali Galadima, Bauchi
The Bauchi Emirate Council has attributed frequent cholera outbreak in the state on poor waste management by government agencies and households.
This was disclosed by the district head of Bauchi Alhaji Nuru Adamu Jumba, when he signed Water Aid commitment card which qualified him to serve as cholera champion in Bauchi with additional mandate to promote personal hygiene and environmental sanitation within communities in the Emirates.
The district head who is also the chiroman Bauchi noted that, the monthly environmental sanitation exercise designed to check filthiness was not being observed by most households, regretting that even residents of Bauchi city who normally complied with the directive ended up depositing waste in drainages and water ways as against designated waste disposal sites.
He blamed government agencies like BASEPA, for delay in the evacuation of refuse, saying this attitude was always responsible for frequent flooding experienced in the state capital, with the attendant risk of contaminating available water source.
The district head of Bauchi, therefore pledged to prove gos position as a cholera champion to seek synergy with Bauchi local government council and BASEPA to help eradicate cholera just as polio disease was terminated.
Speaking in the same vein, amother cholera champion who also doubles as the state director of the National Orientation Agency, Alhaji Nuru Adamu Kobi admonished elective office holders to prioritise provision of water sanitation and hygiene (WASH)services as against donation of cash and motor cycles to their constituencies.
He said politicians have important role to play to check the recurrent cholera outbreak in identified hotspots in Buachi state by ensuring that residents of their respective communities have access to save drinking water to avert outbreak of waterborne diseases.
In a similar remark, a one time Amira of Forum Of Muslim Women Association in Nigeria FOMWAN Bauchi, Hajiya Yagana Mohammed Gidado promised to use her experience as a retired health worker and now a cholera champion to embark on house to house campaign to trigger women and children to accord top most priority to personal hygiene.
Hajiya Yagana reminded women, that now that the clean family campaign has been launched, they should leverage on the campaign to keep their kitchen, toilets, utensils and water source clean to stop insects from infesting their households with diseases.
Earlier in his remarks, the spokesman of WaterAid and it’s Bauchi state partner, Women Development Association For Self sustenance WODASS, Mr Magaji Barde implored the crowned cholera champions to mobilize communities around them to appreciate the importance of cleanliness to the socio economic well being of the people.
Mr Magaji Barde who explains disgust over indiscriminate dumping of refuse on waterways, enjoined the cholera champions to educate residents of the state to observe sanitary rules of environmental cleanliness to stem the spread of cholera and other waterborne diseases.
