BY ADEYEMI AKANJI, BAUCHI – Over 167 million people in Nigeria lack access to hand washing facilities with soap close to their homes thereby making disease infection easy in the country.
This is based on the 2019 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping (WASHNORM), which also revealed that for instance, only 1% of the population in Bauchi State have access to hand-washing facilities with soap and water close to their homes.
The was announced the Bauchi State Commissioner for Water Resources, Mr. Jidauna Tula Mbami at the commissioning of hand-washing facilities at the Special Education School premises in Bauchi on Tuesday with a call to ensure that it was used for the purpose meant for.
The facilities were donated by the Heineken African Foundation (HAF) in collaboration with WaterAid Nigeria in a determined effort to fight the spread of the COVID-19 infection among students with special needs.
While presenting the facilities to the School, the Commissioner stressed that curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is presently the topmost priority of the state government, stressing that the fight against the spread of the infection is futile without good hygiene and the facilities to support its practices.
Mbami noted that hygiene being a crucial element of primary healthcare, is a key barrier to disease transmission and fundamental to infection prevention, control and management which has been shown to reduce cases of acute respiratory infection by 16 – 23%, pneumonia by 50% and the risk of endemic diarrhea by up to 48%.
In his own remarks, the General Manager/Permanent Secretary of RUWASSA, Mr. Garba Babaji said that the collaboration with HAF and other donor agencies has improved the issue of water, sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in the state.
Babaji while commending HAF and WaterAid for the donation, said it will complement the fight against the spread of COVID-19 pandemic particularly among students with special needs.
Representative of Heineken African Foundation (HAF), Mallum Iliya said that the Foundation donated the facilities to the students with special needs considering their nature of existence.
Iliya therefore urged the state government to ensure that the facilities donated are put to effective use in order to serve the purpose for which they were donated.
Principal of the school, Mohammed Ibrahim Yarima expressed happiness with the donation which he said came handy considering the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic which is said to be deadlier.
