In its effort at putting an end to open defecation by the year 2025, the Ogun State government has said a document, which would serve as guiding template /working tools, by all and sundry, for the attainment of open defecation free status, had been developed for adoption.
Commissioner for Rural Development, Engr. Taiwo Oludotun said this at a day stakeholders sensitisation workshop on “Clean Ogun State-Use the Toilet”, commemorating the year 2020 World Toilet Day, at Oba’s Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.
Oludotun stated that the state government had mobilised high level political support and other necessary resources, towards building a new culture to safe and sustainable sanitation.
He added that the State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency(RUWATSAN), is addressing part of the crisis around rural water supply, through release of counterpart fund by the present administration for the implementation of the National PEWASH Programme.
In her keynote address, Wife of the State Governor, who was decorated as the Lead Sanitation Ambassador on Total Eradication of Open Defecation, Mrs. Bamidele Abiodun, said adequate sanitation and good hygiene were parts of fundamental human right that guarantee good health, social and economic wellbeing of the citizens, noting that the stated basic necessities remained greater challenge among larger percentage of the population
In his goodwill message, the Minister for Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu, represented by Mrs. Ayaba Kogbara, said the ugly practice of open defecation has became a norm in many communities, due to lack of sanitation facilities, noting that remarkable progress had been made through various federal, state and local governments’ interventions at achieving ODF- country by 2025.