By Suzan Edeh
The Director General of the Bauchi State Environmental Protection Agency (BASEPA), Dr Mahmud Muhammad Bose has stated that the agency has put in place all the sustainability plans to maintain an open defecation free environment in Bauchi local government area of the state.
Speaking with a team of journalists supported by the UNICEF Bauchi Field office who were in his office to access the impact of the ODF status in the LGA, the Director General of the Agency, said that the journey of Bauchi local government becoming ODF was a successful one in which the agency is a key stakeholder in the entire process.
According to him, to achieve an open defecation free status in the state, the Bauchi government in collaboration with stakeholders in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene sector of the state adopted the Climate Resilient Faecal Sludge implementation strategy document, covering from 2025 to 2030.
He said that with the support from UNICEF and other development partners, stakeholders validated the findings contained in the document that served as an operational guidelines for all service providers and other stakeholders within the Faecal Sludge management value chain in the state.
"The adoption of the guidelines facilitated the attainment and maintenance of the ODF status.I am happy that today in Bauchi State, we have a Fecal Sludge Management (FSM) Implementation strategy which is Climate Resilient.This is part of the sustainability strategy we are putting in place to see that we control the issue of Open defecation"
"We also worked with WaterAid Nigeria under their impact Accelerator project.We already have a user centered friendly toilet which was commissioned last week in the state.This is also a Sustainability mechanism for ODF and we have planning to have this kind of toilet facility in public places such as market areas and motor parks" he said
Also speaking, the Bauchi Local government Chairman of Toilet Business Owners, Ibrahim Kabo Umar stated that in the past, open defecation was problem in the state because many people were not into the operation of toilets as business, adding that the increase in toilet businesses in the local government contributed greatly to achievement of open defecation free status.
"We, as Toilet Business Owners contributed greatly to Bauchi local government in becoming ODF because in public places such as motor parks and market areas, we have toilets under public private partnership.Again, we ensure that we collect the feaces whenever the toilet is full and make money out of it.So, we are also profiting from the feaces"
"To discourage open defecation, we as Toilet Business Owners ensure that girls, women and persons with disabilities do not pay to use toilet, we even allow some men who are pressed and don't have money to use the toilets.Also, BASEPA has integrated Toilet Business Owners into the Faecal Sludge implementation strategy and giving us support in all our activities" he said.
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