Open Defecation: Gombe declare state of emergency on sanitation, hygiene

From Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe

Gombe state government has disclosed its plans to declare a state of emergency on open defecation through the implementation of the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project of the federal government in the state.

This was announced by the commissioner for Commerce, Trade and Industry, Alhaji Nasiru Ahmed, while addressing newsmen at the end of the state executive council meeting on Monday in Gombe.

He said that it was resolved at the meeting that the state of emergency should be declared to tackle the problem of open defecation which poses a serious health challenge to the people in the state.

He added that the decision was in line with the Federal Government directives urging state Governments to declare a state of emergency on open defecation as well as work on the issue of the WASH project.

“Based on the statistics at the national level only 34 local government have successfully dealt with the issue of open defecation, so you can see that it is an urgent matter, it is an emergency and today the council graciously gave the approval that Gombe should join other leagues of states that have declared a state of emergency on the issue,” Mr. Julius Ishaya the state commissioner for youth and sports development further explained.

While also the commissioner for Commerce, Trade and Industry added that the council had also approved N370 million for consultancy services, design, monitoring, and supervision of the construction of N8 billion 27 rural markets across 11 Local Government Areas (LGA) of the state.

Alhaji Nasiru Ahmad explained that out of the 27 markets 10 would be newly constructed while 17 would be upgraded. He said that the project was to modernize the markets and to facilitate the boost of their commercial activities to give the economy of the state a lift up.