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The Bauchi Local Government Council has assured that it will do everything humanly and administratively possible to sustain the open defecation-free (ODF) status it recently attained after many years.
The assurance was given by the Chairperson of the Council, Mahmood Babamaaji while speaking to a team of journalists who were assessing the impact of the ODF status in the local government in his office on Tuesday.
According to him, “Before the sustainability aspect of it, the local government went through the validation process. As part of the efforts, we have pulled together the structures we have put in place.
“So the validation came at a time when I was not the chairman of the local government, but we are following closely because since it is our local government, we have to pay attention. So we got the validation, and the local government, luckily, has gotten the certification. So we give gratitude to Almighty Allah.”
“So when I came for the second time, I was very, very happy because there was significant and remarkable improvement in that aspect. So we now started with the management of the status, and the Council of the local government adopted a strategy for a sustainability framework, which will now guide us toward achieving a very sustainable plan for the local government in the short, medium, and long term,” he stressed.
The Chairperson added, “So, we feel it is important to improve our funding of the WASH Unit because, without adequate funding in terms of logistics, it will be difficult for them to achieve. We took that upon ourselves, adopted the issue, and are working on our policies for a positive outcome.”
Asked about the journey before the present status, he said, “All praises are due to Almighty Allah. First and foremost, we must appreciate the efforts and commitment of our dear Governor, His Excellency, Distinguished Senator Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir, for making it possible for the local government to participate actively in areas where we can positively impact the lives of our people.”
He said, “The issue of the ODF started during my first tenure, my first time as the local government council chairman. At that time, there was a very serious challenge. When I came on board, Bauchi Local Government was one of the local governments identified as having challenges with open defecation.”
“So we started working on the way out, and given the circumstances, coupled with His Excellency’s commitment and priority given to the health sector by declaring a state of emergency in the health sector, we took it upon ourselves that we have to do something about the situation,” he added.
According to him, “So we feel it is very important because it is even kind of embarrassing for the local government representative at that time for the Bauchi local government, the state capital, to be declared as one of the local governments with challenges of open defecation.”
“So we started by giving much significance and priority to our WASH unit to ensure that we adequately come together and then partner, putting our hands together. First, we ensured we identified all the public areas, like the markets, the terminals, and other public areas that were having this kind of challenge,” he added.
He further stated, “So we tried to adopt a model where we could conscientise our people, sensitise them, and get them more informed of the health risks associated with that challenge. That was the first thing we took upon ourselves—to create awareness among the people.”
He said it really helped a great deal at that time because people put a lot of effort into monitoring and supervision to ensure that people were adequately informed because, “When you don’t have adequate information, you would feel that you can just do things the way you want. So, we didn’t allow that to happen at that time.”
The Council Chairperson added that at that time, he ensured that the Council worked together with the partners, particularly UNICEF, stating, “We worked together with the traditional rulers as part of the stakeholders and other very key stakeholders at the local government.”
Another way to sustain the ODF status, according to the Chairperson, is that the Council equally feels it is important to look at existing laws relating to it, stressing that “We have to adopt the strategy for punishment for offenders so that those people who are found wanting can be corrected in order to serve as a deterrent to others. We must maintain what we have done.”
He assured that, “We are going to work closely with the donor agencies that are working in the state, including the Sanitation and Hygiene Fund, which is the donor agency, with esteemed commitment and dedication in order to improve on this sustainability.”
On faecal sludge management strategy, he said that the Council would key into it with all seriousness, especially the new SHF project being anchored by WaterAid Nigeria, which has now given an opportunity for accelerating inclusive sanitation and hygiene economies in Nigeria.”
He stressed that the local government has even distributed some needs assessment forms to all the councillors to bring out some of the concerns of the people from the ward level, stressing that “We feel it is very important for us to construct new sanitation and hygiene facilities, and where we feel it’s important to renovate some, we will do just that.”
“So, these are some of the areas that we think we can do the faecal sludge management, and we feel also that other stakeholders can now come in, with a view to ensuring that adequate opportunities in terms of business and investments are given a chance.”
The Chairperson commended UNICEF for the various impactful interventions that contributed to the LG attaining the ODF status, stressing that over the years, UNICEF has supported training and capacity building as well as technical support for improved WASH services.
Mahmud Babamaaji then appealed to the residents and inhabitants of the government to take the issue of WASH very seriously because that is the only way to check the spread of waterborne diseases.
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