A Non Governmental Organization (NGO) in Bauchi state known as ‘ Society for Water and Sanitation’ (NEWSAN) has decried the prevalence of cholera outbreak in the state revealing that between 2014 and 2018, over 100 people died of the disease.
A member of the NGO Mr Sukumun Ezekiel who was a facilitator at a one day sensitization workshop on cholera organized by NEWSAN with support from WaterAid for community leaders drawn from different wards in the state on Wednesday made the revelation.
According to him, 16 out of the 20 wards in Bauchi local government and eight other local government areas such as Alkaleri, Bogoro, Dass, Darazo, Kirfi, Tafawa Balewa and Toro recorded at least one case of the disease each last year.
He pointed out that in the same year 2018, a total of 9, 725 cases of the disease were recorded in the state adding that not less than 28 people died.
” In 2014, cholera outbreak was recorded in all the local governments of Bauchi state. A total of 16, 923 cases with 88 mortalities were recorded.
” Bauchi local government had 14, 765 cases representing 87.3 per cent of the total cases recorded in the state with 51 fatalities in 2014. The state also recorded 9, 725 cases with 28 deaths in the year 2018″. He said.
Ezekiel enumerated the risk factors of the disease to include open defecation sites in about 66 communities within the Bauchi metropolis and poor environmental sanitation and hygiene lamenting that indiscriminate refuse dump sites were seen all over the metropolis.
Other risks factors he noted include limited access to safe water from the public water supply network, deficient personal hygiene practices such as regular hand washing before eating and after using the toilet.
” It can also be caused by broken water pipes and leakages especially along service lines, wells as the major source of drinking water with most of them poorly kept and protected as well as siting toilets close to wells”. He cautioned.
He therefore appealed to elected politicians to provide Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities to the electorate even as he tasked the public on good hygiene practices as measures to prevent the plague of the disease in the state.
Also speaking, the Ward head of Gwallaga Alhaji Dandada Ahmadu who was a participant at the workshop lauded the NGO for organizing the event and promised to pass the message to his people.
