The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has sunk nine motorised boreholes and over 408 hand pumps in various communities in Konshisha and Ogbadibo Local Government Areas of Benue State.
The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Coordinator of the organization, Mr. Felix Agada, disclosed that they had fully sanitised over 700 communities in the two councils, Punch reports.
In a chat, he said that the agency had also established environmental health clubs in more than 60 schools with the aim of sustaining the programmes. He stated that the gesture is part of the body’s determination to ensure availability of potable water supply and proper hygienic environment especially in rural communities.
The WAHS Coordinator noted that the intervention had made over 100 communities to attain free open defecation status with a target to ensure the two councils become open defecation-free in due course. Agada maintained that before the intervention, most communities from Ogbadibo used to trek a distance of at least 10 kilometres to the neighbouring Omaboro in Kogi State to get potable water. As stated by him, by November the intervention is expected to have impacted around 106 schools while more environmental health clubs would be established to prevent common ailments in the communities.