From Mika’il Tsoho, Dutse
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has commended Jigawa state governor Malam Umar Namadi for his commitments towards sustaining Open Defecation Free (ODF) in Jigawa state.
The commendation was made by the WASH officer, UNICEF Kano field office, Dr Ifeoma Stella Okafor, during a two day workshop on Post-ODF Assessments dissemination, strategy implementation progress review, and 2026 ODF sustainability Plan, Organized by Jigawa state ministry of water resources in collaboration with UNICEF held in Bauchi.
According to her, Jigawa state got WASH support from donors due to their commitments, hardworking and teamwork between state ministries, agencies and local governments level, adding that UNICEF supported with technical support and guidance.
Stella who described local governments level as major contributor to the success said, to sustain the tempo, both state, local governments and other stakeholders like religious/traditional Leaders Civil Society Organizations need to work in team to achieve the desired goals.
While delivering his speech on behalf of 27 local governments chairmen in the state, the ALGON chairman Dr Sibu Abdullahi assured more collaboration and support to sustain the efforts.
He said, as the local governments contributed more than 50% to the success of ODF in Jigawa, promised to do all their best to retained the Sustainability stage.
Also speaking the state commissioner for water resources Alhaji Muhammad Alhassan, promised to more enlightenment campaign on attitudinal change and community engagement to ensure the Sustainability and proper utilizations of public toilets and other Defecation places.
During the workshop, the community sanitation findings shows that Birnin Kudu local government achieved 93% ODF, 6% claiming ODF while household latrine coverage stand at 92%.
The findings also shows that, Sule-Tankarkar achieved 84% ODF, 3% claiming ODF, 13% remain non ODF, while household latrine coverage stand at 59%.
