Hottestgistnaija.com
As
Nigeria joins the rest of the world to celebrate 2019 World Toilet Day,
with the theme, “Leaving No One Behind”, Wife of Ondo State Governor,
Arabinrin Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu has admonished women in the State to
embrace good personal hygiene and sanitation in order to forestall the
spread of killer diseases, just as she organises ” WASH N’ PLAY ”
initiative to commemorate the Day and launching of the Clean Nigeria
Campaign.
The WASH N’ PLAY
Initiative is aimed at raising awareness on the state of WASH
infrastructure in public schools in Ondo State and further increases
citizens participation to solve the WASH problems. Towards
this end, a fundraising novelty match has also been organised to mark
this event, so as to enable interested persons contribute towards
creating a disease-free environment, as funds raised will be used to
construct toilet and water facilities in selected public schools with
the worst WASH indices.
For
about two years, the Wife of the Governor, through one of her
Foundations, Betty Anyanwu Akeredolu Foundation (BAAF) and the support
of Ondo State citizens has provided not less than 24 toilet units and
water facilities for schools in Ondo State. Some of the beneficiaries
include Ilu Abo High School, Ilu Abo in Akure North Local Government and
Okeigbo Grammer School, Okeigbo in Ile Oluji/Okeigbo Local Government.
While
calling for collective actions in curbing inter-border sanitation
crisis and revealing the importance of toilet in saving lives of the
people, Mrs. Akeredolu affirmed that the United Nations set aside 19th
of November annually to raise awareness on sanitation and hygiene in our
communities, thus, marking the World Toilet Day.
She
said “the Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu understands the
importance of the celebration and is determined to tackle sanitation
challenges in the State, saying it is part of the Sustainable
Development Goals, specifically the Goal 6 which promises sanitation for
every household by 2030”.
Arabinrin
further hinted that available records show that across the world, 4.2
billion people live without safely managed sanitation, 673 million still
practice open defecation, while three billion lack basic hand washing
facilities; while in Nigeria, 47 million people do not use toilets
causing nearly 87,000 diarrheal related deaths in children under the age
of five and therefore advised women to teach their children/wards basic
hygiene and always pay attention to those people left behind without
sanitation.
The First Lady
also noted that, the people must use hygienic toilet facilities, where
human waste are safely disposed and prevented from causing endemic
diseases.
Tobiloba Fademi, Special Assistant (Media) to Her Excellency
