UNICEF wants local solutions to open defecation in Plateau communities

The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has called on communities in Plateau State to find local solutions to get latrines in their homes and schools as part of efforts to eradicate open defecation.

The UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins, stated this in Lo-Gwom Kwi village of Riyom local government area during the commissioning of a motorized solar powered water system and school sanitation facility.

The project is part of Plateau’s Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reform Programme phase III, which the EU, in collaboration with UNICEF, had invested 12 million euro since 2013.

“What is key now is how the communities and the LGAs would move forward to be able to sustain and maintain the water system, to look for sustainable systems within the community to stop open defecation.

“And for the children to understand about hygiene and hand washing because that is the future of their health and the health of the children is the future of this country,” he said.

Earlier, the European Union head of delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ambassador Ketil Karlsen, stressed that it was fundamentally important to invest in human capital development, adding that “to do that, we need to secure clean water, we need to secure better health opportunities and of course, we need to stop open defecation.”