Tag WASH IN EMERGENCYCholera

Cholera: Group sensitises on water safety, distributes water purification materials in Ebonyi

By Tosin Kolade
Abuja, March 27, 2020 (NAN) The Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Emergency Working Group has distributed water purification materials to four local government areas affected by cholera in Ebonyi.

Mr Ibiyemi Olu-Daniels, WASH in Emergency team leader made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.

Olu-Daniels said that the group also carried out sensitisation on water safety to affected communities and analysis testing to know the source of water contamination.

According to the team leader, the test results show that the water sourced from affected communities has been contaminated, especially River Ebonyi and some unprotected hand-dug wells.

NAN recalls that the outbreak of cholera in Ebonyi claimed the lives of 21 persons with 155 cases reported.

Olu-Daniels said the group also inaugurated the State WASH in Emergency Working Group to be responsible for sustaining the campaign against poor practices that exposed the people to cholera and other water related diseases within the local government areas.

“The WASH in Emergency Response Team visited Amachi Autonomous Community, Eligwu Nsigwo village in Onicha LGA and Idioke-Ndiebo Ishieke in Ebonyi LGA.

“The samples of water from boreholes, motor parks and households were taken for laboratory analysis to ascertain the source of the cholera outbreak in those affected Communities.

“The test results showed that most of them drank water from unprotected water sources and we told them to always purify the water by boiling among other methods,” he said.

He said the group would also carry out hygiene promotion in the affected communities as measure to reduce the risk of disaster.

The group comprised state ministries of water resources, health, environment, education, information, budget and planning, urban and regional development, UNICEF, WASH NGOs, SEMA, NIMET among others. (NAN)
TAK/ECN/GY
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Edited by Emmanuel Nwoye/Grace Yussuf

By Tosin Kolade
Plan
Sokoto, Feb. 4, 2019 (NAN) The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Emergency Working Group has inaugurated the Sokoto chapter to coordinate response plan to reduce  cholera outbreak and other preventable diseases in emergency situation.

At the event in Sokoto on Monday, Team Leader, Mr Baba Galadima, said this became necessary following delay of states to key into the National Cholera Prevention, Preparedness and Control and Response Plan.

According to him, the implementation of the group will help emergency response plan toward reducing preventable diseases and deaths as well as meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

“One of the emergencies that we have been battling with is the outbreak of cholera and I know that this state had very high number of outbreak in 2018.

“We went round the state last year in partnership with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, and we saw the issues, during the council meeting, we presented a paper and it shows that many states have refused to consider WASH in emergency.

“If we work according to plan, there would be minimal outbreak of cholera; the target is that we want to completely eliminate cholera by 2030 globally.”

Galadima said that Nigeria has keyed into the Open Defecation Free target by 2025, saying with concerted efforts and stakeholders’ collaboration, this would be attained.

He said that budgetary allocation was necessary for the WASH sector, stressing that it was a matter for regret that a large number of persons having bouts of cholera were the disadvantaged poor.

He stressed the need for behavior change and awareness creation on cholera, calling for deliberate coordination from all key actors toward ending cholera cases in the country.

“It is now believed that we cannot eliminate cholera in the country without intervention of WASH.’’

The Deputy Director, WASH Response with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mr Ibiyemi Olu-Daniel, said that the aim of the visit was to assess the WASH needs of the state and reduce outbreak of water-borne diseases.

He said that other emergencies such as floods and insurgencies, were critical and ought to be assessed to avoid loss of lives and livelihood, saying the state was known to suffer cholera and flood yearly.

“As the rainy season is come closer now, we must begin to see what need to be done to prepare for possible cases with this team that has been inaugurated, we hope that they give the needed push to prevent an outbreak.

“As our contingency plan, we need to focus on the needs of displaced people, in terms of water, sanitation and hygiene, when those things are out in place, cholera will be eliminated.’’

The Commissioner for Water Resources, Alhaji Umar Bature, while welcoming the team, noted that the state government had prioritised hygiene promotion, saying this was evident with policies on WASH interventions.

He said the state has two Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps which were fallout from border communities with Zamfara, saying the state had sought support from the Refugee Commission to provide humanitarian assistance.

“Our main problem is banditry and kidnapping, but we have been working to curtail it, as a lead ministry, we will streamline these activities in consultation with the working group from the ministry.’’

The Commissioner for Health, Dr Ali Inname, said the state had constituted a technical working group and incident manager for cholera to curtail and give emergency preparedness when needed.

Inname said that although outbreak of cholera was curtailed, polio was still an issue in some areas in Sokoto North and South, saying with more intervention, this would also be curtailed.  (NAN)
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Edited by Grace Yussuf