Bauchi State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA) has expressed its determination to ensure the sustainability of the certification and declaration of Bauchi LGA as Open Defecation Free (ODF) status.
The expression was made by the General Manager of RUWASA, Alhaji Adamu Sabo while speaking to Bauchi UNICEF Field Office Media Team in his office on Thursday.
On how Bauchi LGA became one of the Nine ODF LGAs in the state, he said “The journey to becoming ODF was not achieved by one agency; it was a collective journey. The journey that all stakeholders were actively involved in. We had traditional and religious institutions playing major roles. And all other security agencies at the local government. They were party to this very noble success that we had in local government.”
Adamu Sabo added “And the process started through Community mobilization to all the stakeholders, our leaders, Community leaders, their leadership with the local government, Traditional and religious leaders.”
He stressed that the mobilization focused on why there is a need for people to stop open defecation, saying, “We had engagements with all the communities. You can remember that we have over 1,400 communities in the state. We have to visit all these communities and engage with them.”
He stressed that, “We sensitized them to realize the dangers that are related to open defecation. When they realise by themselves, then they make quality decisions to stop open defecation. And that could be done by constructing improved toilets so that they will stop open defecation. And that is actually what happened that led Bauchi LGA to become ODF.”
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Responding to what else was done aside from this and the challenges faced as well as the efforts being made to sustain the speeds that have been attained, the RUWASSA GM said that,
“Apart from the sensitization, we had to equally have structures at the community level and local government level. We have the WASH unit where we have principal officers who go for the implementation. They do go home to home for mobilization.”
He added “At the Community level, we equally have structures. Like the WASHComs, the Local Are Mechanics (LAMs), and the Volunteer Hygiene Providers (VHPs) Structures. They drive the entire process and at the community level and they are all part of the success.”
On the challenges you faced before achieving ODF, he said, “Well, for any activity that you tend to do there could be a lot of challenges, you know. Stopping or modification is all about behavioural change, which is something that takes a long time to do; it doesn’t happen overnight. It has to be a gradual process. So that is One of the challenges and even on the course of doing. Some people may even deny what you are trying to realize.”
“Because they are ignorant of why you are doing that. But along the way, they begin to realize the need to construct and make use of the toilets. Besides, the structures are meant to be equally happening for the success of the campaign by what are called toilet business owners (TBOs), he added.
He explained, “These people are a set of people that were trained; we train them at the local government levels on how to construct the improved toilets in our communities. Initially, what we had with the concept of TBOs was just to construct only, regardless of whether it is improved or not, but as we begin to move forward, we realized that constructing an improved toilet needs to be done properly.”
The RUWASA GM added, “When you construct the toilets during the wet season, they collapse, and that becomes a very big challenge. So, at the end of the day, some households even deny the consequences of it. So Sanitation Marketing was introduced on Improved toilet.”
According to him, “Even though We are identifying microfinance institutions for support, we gave them what is called access to contact households to construct inclusive toilets. And this loan is given to the TBOs. To train them to construct Improved toilets in the households. And that’s why we are having the kind of success in the entire process, unlike before, where the households constructed and improved that thing and sometimes it collapsed.”
“Another way that was put in place for sensation, for sensibility is constant monitoring even after the communities become ODF. We employ and direct our local government leadership when they have WASH units that are about to become Department very soon,”.
He added, “Monthly, we have a kind of platform where we gather at the end of every month and in regard to the entire 20 local government areas to discuss our Services and challenges concerning construction materials and all other issues that are related to WASH.”
According to him, “Apart from having monitoring, we equally have a time when people are trained on making an Improvement for the construction factors, really, you have to be a kind of check and balance that will make those that are before the process to realize that something went wrong.”
He also stated that there measures put in place to sustain the status as well as to address those that are defaulting for open vacation pointing out that there are certain penalties that are attached to this.
Adamu Sabo added that another major aspect that really played very important role is the private sector including the TBOs who inject their funds into delivering this local government, and not even delivering the local government, but having the sustainability plan in place.
He then commended UNICEF for the prominent role it played and still playing in seeing the the attainment of ODF by the LGAs in the state saying, “UNICEF really played a very important role in this process. I mean, the role they played was supporting us with funding. Training our structures, even at the state and at the local government levels, we have series of training from the UNICEF. And they do support us. All that is needed to have the process successfully done including the state government.”
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