UNICEF wants Katsina open defecation free by 2025

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said it is working in collaboration with the Katsina State Government for the state to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) status by 2025.

Chief of UNICEF Field Office, Kano, Mr. Rahama Mohammed, stated this during the 2024 end-of-year review meeting and 2025-2027 work plan consultation workshop held in the state capital on Thursday.

Mohammed said the health benefits of being an ODF state were enormous, and that collaborative efforts would be sustained to ensure Katsina joins Jigawa State in becoming ODF in two years’ time.

More than 46 million Nigerians are reported to defecate openly, with Jigawa being the first state to be designated ODF by the National Task Group on Sanitation (NTGS) in 2022.

In the same year, the Clean Nigeria Campaign (CNC) said of the 34 Local Government Areas in Katsina State, only 24 had been declared ODF, with 10 other councils yet to achieve this status.

Mohammed also lamented that the problem of stunted growth among children in the state was rising despite significant decreases in neighboring Kano and Jigawa states.

He said there was a need for stakeholders to look into the issue with the view to addressing it.

On the 2024 end-of-year review meeting and 2025-2027 workplan consultation workshop, he said its aim was to assess how far collaboration between UNICEF and the state government had gone in tackling problems affecting children in the state.

He said the workshop would enable UNICEF and the government to think outside the box on ways to successfully partner in the future, to address issues that border on five thematic areas.

He identified the thematic areas to include Out-of-School Children, Stunted Growth among Children, Water, Elimination of Polio, and Open Defecation.