Two Garissa villages attain open defecation free status

Two villages in Garissa Township subcounty on Wednesday attained the status of being open defecation free, an important water and sanitation milestone in the county.

The county public health team led by director of preventive and promotive services Mohamed Salat, Garissa subcounty director of medical services  Mohamed Ahmed and Unicef's Jacob Kipkeny joined Bulla province A and B in celebrating.

Open Defecation Free status is achieved when a community chooses to live in a clean and healthy environment.

All households and key public spaces construct latrines and sanitation facilities and stop using the bush to answer the call of nature.

Health and Sanitation chief officer Hassan Anshur said the county had progressed across the seven counties.

A total of 409 villages had been declared to be ODF and 352 had become ODF certifies through the support of Unicef.

He said Garissa township and Ijara subcounties would be declared open defecation free next month after a successful community-led total sanitation approach adopted by county public health teams.

Anshur further said, for the county to achieve 100 per cent ODF status by June 2023, the county government will make a financial commitment in support of CLTS concept implementation.

He commended the residents for the milestone saying the change will mostly be felt by children under five years who are the main victims of diseases due to poor sanitation and hygiene practices.

Mohamed Ahmed commended the team for leading their two villages into achieving the status and called on other teams yet to deliver their areas as ODF to step up their campaigns.

Unicef's Jacob Kipkeny said Garissa was on course to become the first county in Northern Kenya to be declared ODF.

He assured of Unicef’s commitment to building more collaborations with the county government to ensure deliberate and sustained attention in improving hygiene for residents.

Present during today's function was Mohamed Sahal direct donor and coordination, Abdinoor Ole Hussein director of special programs and Ahmed Haji county public health officer.

 

Edited by Kiilu Damaris