Poor Sanitation Responsible For Cholera Outbreak In Abuja- FCTA

The Executive Director, Federal Capital Territory Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Mohammed Dan-Hassan, has disclosed plans of the FCT Minister, Bello Mohammed to install mobile toilets in markets, parks, gardens and recreational centres across the FCT metropolis.

Speaking during an interview session with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Friday, Dan-Hassan attributed the spread of infections such as the cholera outbreak to poor sanitation.

According to him, the practice of open defecation especially during the rainy season is a major cause of epidemics in Nigeria.

“Cholera is gotten from the dirty environment, taking contaminated water and also contaminated fruits and vegetables.

“The minister is doing a lot and stakeholders have recently met and by July we are going to be having toilets in designated places known as the `Red spot areas’ including markets, parks and gardens, recreational centres in the FCT and structures would be set up to sustain them’’, he said.

He also explained that the toilets would be gender-sensitive and children would also not be left out.

Speaking further, Dan-Hassan noted that the current outbreak of cholera in the country especially in the FCT communities calls for concern.

He added, “There is a rapid increase in the population of FCT, already there is loss of lives as a result, yet the disease is still spreading.

“In the FCT, we’ve done a lot of sensitisation around the communities, in all the six local government areas in our ward, we have desk officers working with us and in Kwali alone, 139 communities have already been sensitised and currently running their toilet projects.

“Some communities in Kwali, are already claiming open defecation free and would be declared free after our monitoring and inspections in those communities.”

Calling on the participation of the public sectors players, he stated that the ‘Clean Nigeria, use the toilet Champaign’ is an ongoing project used by the government to propagate the use of toilets within the FCT and its communities.

“Before the year 2025, FCT would be free and Nigeria would be free. Except this practice is totally eradicated, there may be no way out,” he said.