The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed readiness to support Kano State Government to ensure that the six targeted local government areas of the state become Open Defecation Free (ODF) by March.
Mr Rafid Aziz, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Manager, UNICEF, Kano Field Office, gave the assurance at a meeting in Kano on Wednesday.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was between officials of the Ministry for Local Government, RUWASSA and UNICEF on attaining local government wide ODF in the state.
Aziz said that UNICEF was ready to give the State Government the necessary support to ensure that the six targeted local government areas were open defecation free before the end of March.
“The capacity the state has is the local governments and the beneficiaries are the grassroots, so there is a need for the government to tackle the issue with the heads of departments of WASH.
“We hope they will be able to deliver because the timeline is ending in March but we are hoping for an extension,” the UNICEF official said.
He, therefore, appealed to the state government to prevail on the local government councils to ensure the realisation of the open defecation free in the six targeted local government areas in the state by March.
According to him, the personal visits to the affected local government areas would not only ginger the Councils’ officials but also will go along way in motivating them to be more committed toward the realisation of the set objectives.
In his remarks, the Director, Inspection in the state Ministry for Local Government, Alhaji Salisu Dan’azumi, pledged the commitment of the state government to provide the necessary support to the councils to meet the deadline.
He commended three of the six local government councils for their efforts to ensure that their areas were open defecation free in line with attaining local government wide ODF.
“Garko and Sumaila local governments are trying but Wudil local government needs little push to achieve the desired result,” he said.
Dan’azumi, however, stressed the need for a stronger synergy between the Ministry and UNICEF as according to him, the existing relationship between the two organisations was not encouraging. (NAN)