THE Department of Environment, Bwari Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the Committee on Women in Engineering are collaborating to take hygiene campaign to communities in the district.

The Head of the Department, Mr Timothy Nwanna told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja that the effort was to reduce communicable diseases such as cholera and others in the communities.

Nwanna said that it was also an initiative of FCT Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project targeted at reducing open defecation and the dangers related to it.

“The Committee of Women in Engineering has been of great assistance in this campaign. Our pilot community is Gaba community in the district where we have formed clubs and societies in some of the schools.

“This is where WASH comes in to educate more on the circle between open defecation and washing of hands.

“Some of these communities lack social amenities like access to water, so it is either they have no culture in regular washing of hands or the water is not even available to do so.

“As we make these sensitisation campaign and since the government is a part of it, it makes it easier for the provision of some of the things lacking to be made available and we are progressing.”

Nwanna said that the impact of the campaign allows for the children in schools to grow with the new culture through the clubs and societies created in various communities.

According to him, one club has been created in one school in all the 10 wards in the council in order to have a multiplier effect of the campaign.

He however noted that the campaign was not without its challenges as it had limited trained hands to help pass the message across.

“The women in the committee once in a while trigger the campaign, we follow up and they leave to return after a while to check on the level of compliance.

“There’s also the issue of funding; this work is more of preventive health which is actually cheaper than curative but you know in this country people believe in curative measures and the fire brigade method.

“If only we can put much to prevent rather than cure, more lives would be saved with less cost because it would help reduce spread of these communicable diseases like cholera, which would go a long way to reduce the outbreak.

“However, I assure you, even with these challenges, there’s progress in what we are doing, the level of compliance may not be high but the job must continue, it is better than not doing anything at all.”

NAN reports that the Committee of Women in Engineering is an international organisation of the World Federation of Engineering Organisation. (NAN)

– Feb. 20, 2019 @ 11:27 GMT |