By Editor
A non-Governmental Organization for health communication and advocacy, the Nigeria Health Watch has advised Kaduna state government to construct more toilet facilities, recruit more staff and ensure adequate water supply for Primary Health Health Care, (PHC) Centres across the state.
The organization who noted that primary care meets about 90 percent of human health needs said they were in Kaduna to observe the Water Sanitation Hygiene, WASH practices in the state's PHC centers, in order to provide evidence for action to drive improvement of healthcare delivery in the state.
Speaking to journalists shortly after the presentation of their findings from accessments of Water Sanitation and Hygiene Services in PHCs in the state, the community Engagement Manager of the organization, Dr Bashar Abubakar noted that the state performed well WASH and Infection Prevention and Control assemment, but there is need for improvement by providing functional gender equitable toilet facilities and recruiting more people to maintain them.
According to Abubakar, "the findings shows that there are still room for improvement, but their are health facilities that have sources of water with available toilets. Over sixty percent of the PHCs have toilet facilities in the state, but not all have water on sight and not all have functional gender equitable toilet facilities and hygiene officers in them.
Reacting the the assessment, the Director of Rural Water Supply Agency, RUWSA in Kaduna recommended that the organization should look into the aspect of communicable disease caused by open defection.
According to him, "if toilets are inser locks and keys or if some are not accessible to PHC receivers because of poor maintenance, then there will be more open defecation."
Meanwhile, Hamza Ibrahim, the Director of Disease Prevention and Control for Kaduna promised that the state government will work on the recommendations given by Nigeria Health Watch to improve healthcare delivery in the state.
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