As the whole World marks the World Environment Day today, the Community Led Total Ambassador (CLTS) and wife of the Governor, State of Osun, Mrs Sherifat Aregbesola, has called on the people of the State to step up the level of sanitation in order to boost the health of children.
Mrs Aregbesola is of the view that enhancing sanitation in our communities and ensuring that people stop the practise of open defecation would help reduce incidence of diseases such as diarrhoea which affect children significantly.
She said, “open defecation is a practise which impact negatively on water and food resources as it causes feaca elements to contaminate the sources of water and food production processes.
“As the UNICEF CLTS Ambassador, I am committed to ensuring that the communities in Osun are made to be completely open defection free and move therefrom to attain the status of full and complete sanitation.
“The administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has been delivering expanded quality water facilities in the State and we need to compliment this effort in our communities by engaging our people irrespective of gender and age to stop the practise of open defecation.
“We have been training CLTS facilitators in large number and very soon we shall commence statewide sanitation and open defecation free community engagement tour in all the local government areas.
“This tour is part of our plans to empower our communities to imbibe the use of toilets built with local materials rather than defecating in open places. We believe this is essential part of environmental cleanliness and protection to safeguard the life of our people especially children.
“If our people become so conscious of the need to eradication open defecation, we are convinced that they would easily buy into other issues relating to conservation of our Environment especially climate change.
“We also want our people to be conscious of the theme of the year’s World Envrionment Day which is ” Think, Eat and Save”. The theme enjoins us to think deeply in respect of how we produce our food, eat in a way that will not lead to endangering our lives and the Environment and prevent wastage of food.
“This theme has imbedded in it the need for cleanliness, handwashing and avoidance of practises that will contaminate our food line.
“This is a good message which we must keep with us as people in the State of Omoluabi”.
June 5 of very year has been set aside by the United Nations to commemorate the Environment Day. The day is to raise awareness about all the challenges and issues affecting our Environment.