The Executive Director, Federal Capital Territory Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Dr Mohammed Dan-Hassan, has disclosed that the practice of open defecation, especially during the rainy season is a major cause of outbreaks of epidemics.
He said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday in Abuja.
According to him, the current outbreak of cholera in the country especially in the FCT communities calls for concern because dirty and unsafe water is the major reason for the outbreak.
Dan-Hassan, called for more active participation of communities in the eradication of the menace.
“There is a rapid increase in the population of FCT, already there are loss of lives as a result, yet the disease is still spreading.
“Cholera is gotten from dirty environment, taking contaminated water and also contaminated fruits and vegetables.
“Except this practice is totally eradicated, there may be no way out’’, he said.
He, however, reiterated the minister’s commitment to see that open defecation was a thing of the past.
“In the FCT, we’ve done a lot of sensitisation around the communities, in all the six local government areas in our ward, we have desk officers working with us and in Kwali alone,139 communities have already been sensitised and currently running their toilet projects.”
