*** Decry high rate of open defecation in Northwest
The Federal Government has launched the Diseases, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Dashboard, NTDs WASH, to cushion the effects among citizens with little or no access to prevention, and treatment across the country.
It said the move was in acknowledgement of the fact that lack of clean water and good sanitary condition in healthcare facilities were responsible for the spread of some of these infectious diseases.
Speaking during the launch of the Dashboard in Abuja, the Program Manager, Trachoma, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Nicolas Olobio, recalled that the NTD wash dashboard is an innovative initiative that was aimed to provide comprehensive data and visualizations on the progress in addressing neglected tropical diseases worldwide.
Olobio noted that the dashboard would serve as a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers and stakeholders by presenting a holistic view of the current situation and showcasing successful interventions that have had a positive impact on communities affected by these diseases.
He said: “The aim of the launch was to have good wash services in those places where the wash services are very poor, we are having an NTDs activities here. So, the essence is when we do our NTDs interventions and we find out that washes are poor there.
“We bring in water resources to carry out an intervention to make sure that washes are ok. And in so doing it makes elimination easy for us. Because without wash you can’t eliminate NTD.
“The behavioural change, you can not change people’s behaviour. I have been to places in some states in the northwest. They use the to open defecation. So you need to change people’s behaviour. Those are the things we are looking at, those are still what we see and we call on the wash sector to help us.
“There are people that live with animals, very wrong for trachoma. The environment is very poor. You need water for people to wash their faces, wash their hands, you understand when we find out that all these things do not exist in those places we call the water sector to come and help us.”
In his remarks, the Country Director, of Sightsavers Nigeria, Dr Sunday Isiyaku, said that the group was committed to partnering with WASH and NTD sectors towards the elimination of NTDs, especially Trachoma.
Isiyaku, represented by the Sightsavers, Programme Manager, Anita Gwom, said: “The purpose of this launch event is to present the dashboard as hosted on the WASHIMS platform to stakeholders and familiarize stakeholders on access to and usage of the dashboard.
He noted that efforts to strengthen WASH and NTD cross-sector coordination have been underway since 2018 saying that led by the Ministries of Health and Water Resources and supported by Sightsavers, the WASH/NTD combined indicator webpage was developed as a mechanism to strengthen data visualization toward improved joint planning and decision making.
Adding that, the final objective was to host the dashboard on the WASHIMS platform for visibility and access by NTD and WASH stakeholders as well as other relevant and interested parties. Following the hosting of the WASH/NTD webpage on WASHIMS, this launch event was planned.
“The purpose of this launch event is to present the dashboard as hosted on the WASHIMS platform to stakeholders and familiarize stakeholders on access to and usage of the dashboard.
“The objective of the event was to introduce the NTD WASH dashboard as hosted on the WASHIMS platform and allow stakeholders to become familiar with access to the WASHIMS platform and usage of the NTD WASH dashboard.
“Sightsavers is happy to have supported this remarkable feature and is always committed to ensuring that through active collaboration between the WASH and the NTD sectors as we move towards the elimination of NTDs, especially Trachoma.”
Also, the Executive Director, of Health Environment Advocacy Learning’s HEAL Foundation’ Madam Chioma Mong, who was represented by Rita Oriere, urged Federal Government to partner with stakeholders in the fight against NTDs.
She said: “We remain committed to doing this through WASH-NTDs integrated approaches as well impact assessment to ensure that Nigeria is free of NTDs diseases, especially trachoma.”
