ABUJA – The Federal Ministry of Water Resources said on Wednesday that 4,328 cases of cholera outbreak and 147 deaths had so far been reported in more than 13 states in the country between 2010 and 2014.
Mr Samuel Ome, the Director, Water Quality Control and Sanitation department, gave this statistics at the Emergency Working Group Meeting organised by the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) group, an arm of the National Task Group on Sanitation (NTGS) in Abuja.
The director gave the names of the states affected as Kano, Benue, Zamfara, Kaduna, Sokoto, Adamawa, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Kwara, Oyo, Ebonyi, Kogi, Lagos, Osun, and Plateau.
‘’Our duty as WASH is basically on preventive measures in order to contain the outbreak of water-borne diseases.” [eap_ad_2] The director, who attributed the cholera outbreak to the lack of potable water and inadequate toilet facilities, said the meeting was convened to discuss steps to address the challenge.
Ome , therefore, directed the National Water Quality Reference Laboratories to visit the affected areas.
In his speech, UNICEF representative at the meeting, Mr Ajibade Olokun, said the organisation had commenced work in Kaduna, Lagos, Bauchi and Enugu to curb the menace.
Olokun added that Lagos and Zamfara states recorded the highest number of cases were among the states that recorded larger cases of the disease.
Miss Joy Idara, who also represented the Nigerian Red Cross Society, said the society, in collaboration with International Federation of Red Cross Society, gave assistance to the eight affected states in the northern part of the country.
‘’Zamfara was worst hit with 2,791 cases with 13 deaths in 15 out of 20 local government areas.
‘’The organisation intervened in various ways to improve people’s knowledge on basic hygiene practices they need to check the disease.”
She said that volunteers from the society also carried out sensitisation, social mobilisation and regular household visits and provided latrine and safe water facilities to the people. (NAN)[eap_ad_3]
