As part of her Community Development Service (CDS), a corps member serving in Gombe state, Olabanji Damilola Racheal, has provided water treatment systems to 1,756 primary and secondary schools in the state.
According to the corps member, the gesture was in response to the need to ensure increased access to clean and safe drinking water, especially amongst children who are the most vulnerable to infections by water-borne diseases.
Others were taps and Aquatabs water treatment tablets as well as users guidelines to each benefiting school, including 100-litre water containers.
She told newsmen that staff of these schools will be trained on the treatment procedure which involves three basic steps, adding that the initiative was a collaborative effort with Impact Water Nigeria with support of the state ministry of education which gave approval for the program to be conducted in Gombe state.
Damilola, however, explained that they have provided enough Aquatabs water treatment tablets that would last the schools for about two academic sessions, expressing hope to provide more.
Receiving the items on behalf of Headmasters and Principals in Gombe local government area, the Education Secretary in the LGA, Mallam Abubakar Baba, appreciated the gesture and warned the authorities to ensure judicious use of the tablets.
The ES promised to direct the Health Desk Officer of the Local Education Authority (LEA) and a team to embark on monitoring of schools for ensuring proper use, saying any school that is found neglecting or not making adequate use of the container and the tablets would be dealt with.
A Headmaster in Kamara primary school, Ibrahim Alhaji Haruna expressed optimism that with the water treatment system pupils vulnerable to cholera, typhoid and other water-borne diseases would be saved and that access to the clean water would also open up their brains for a good understanding of what they are being thought in the school.
On his part, the Country Director, Impact Water Nigeria, Mr Lekan Oyekanmi said the aim of the international social enterprise organisation is to deliver affordable and sustainable safe drinking water to millions of Nigerians through installation of point of use Water Purification Systems with the support of government of Nigeria and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
