By Hassan Zaggi
“With constant enlightenment of community members and engagement with community leaders and family heads including subtle threat for possible punitive action, we have been able to attain Open Defecation-Free (ODF) status.”
The Hakimi of Wallama ward in Shani Local Government Area of the Borno State, Alh. Muhammad K. Wallama, disclosed this when a team of UNICEF and other state government officials visited him in his palace.
The visit was to assess and monitor the ODF status of the community.
He explained that the journey to achieving the ODF status was a hectic one as they traditional leaders and other community leaders had to attain regular meetings organized by a woman from Ugandan who was working in the state.
The royal father explained that even though no one was ever arrested or punished for open defecation, but that there was constant reminder of the consequences and negative implication of open defecation.
He also commended the role of United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for providing water to the community.
Water, according to him, was a very scarce commodity in the area as residents have to trek long distances before getting water.
The water they residents use before the intervention of UNICEF, he disclosed, was not good as cattle and other animals also drink from the water source.
“On how we started, there was a woman-a Ugandan, she always come here for meeting with us advising us not to defecate outside.
“She kept educating us and whenever we come back, we bring together our village heads and tell them that it is not good to defecate outside.
“We then asked her about the Fulani people who don’t have permanent settlement, she said that wherever they are, they can dig a pit where they will use to defecate, when they leave, they can cover it,” the monarch explained.
The royal father who was visibly elated said: “I can confidently say, without contradiction that we have emerged victorious over open defecation.
“There is nowhere around this community, either in the bush that one will see any human feaces. No.
“We cannot forget in a hurry the role of UNICEF. They contributed in sensitizing us and also provided water for us,” he said.
The monarch who recalled with pain how the community suffered lack of water before the UNICEF intervention said: “If I begin to narrate to you our situation before now, you will pity us. We don’t have water nearby. We go to far distance before we can get water for our use.
“Now we have many boreholes in the community. We have stand-by machine so that if one is faulty, we can use the other. Some others are using solar power.
“I am thanking UNICEF for the good thing they have done to us.”
He, however, appealed that there are other hard-to-reach communities who are still having challenge of access to water.
On the impact of the ODF status and having clean water on the health of residents of the community, Alhaji Wallam said: “Before now, we always have cases of typhoid and diarrhea, but all these are thing of the past. We have overcome them.”
Speaking, the General Manager, Borno Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA), Engr. Babagana Sa’ad, commended the community leaders for their cooperation with the government and UNICEF to ensure open defecation free status in the community.
He noted that attaining open defecation-free status was a huge achievement considering that only few local government areas in the country have attained the status.
“With all the challenges of insecurity Borno state is dealing with, we have other areas that we are doing very well. Achieving open defecation status is one of them,” the General Manager said.
He, however, assured the royal father that his request on provision water for hard-to-reach communities will be presented to the governor of the state for action.
“We will present your request to UNICEF and other partners and we believe that in no distant time, those communities will be assisted to get good water supply,” Eng. Sa’ad said.
