The Network of Female Professional in Water Sanitation and Hygiene (FEMinWASH), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Environmental Health Council Of Nigeria (EHCON) to ensure affordable and accessible Water, Sanitation and Hygiene practice in Nigeria.
The President, FEMinWaSH Dr Bolu Onabolu while speaking in Abuja on Wednesday at the signing ceremony stated that the partnership in the spirit of building bridges and collaboration aimed at pushing sanitation and drinking water quality while sustaining the water supply agendas of government.
Onabolu noted that the partnership that with EHCON is an action oriented memorandum which will change the narrative in the water and sanitation in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, Onabolu stated that the Registrar, EHCON has directed all female EHOs to join the Network of Female in WASH adding that membership of the Network will be a condition for renewal of licences assuring their support of all male and Female EHOs at local government levels who are crucial to moving sanitation forward in Nigeria.
She noted that efforts aimed at addressing period poverty among women is ongoing adding that period poverty contributes negatively to cases of out-of-children especially among the girl-child.
“A lot of work is ongoing in terms of menstrual hygiene management and trying to address period poverty, some of our members are actually creating awareness and trying to work with poorer people to produce reusable pads which they can sell and make some income.
“Some of the work is going on in the country at the policy level and field level to ensure that this issue is addressed because period poverty affects lots of things studies has been carried out which shows that girls who are having their periods and in schools without water and sanitation actually miss days in school and you can imagine immediate and long term effects of that in terms of education of our girl-child.
“if a girl-child is not educated that affects the family and our GDP so we are working on that and this partnership that we have signed today with EHCON, is an action oriented memorandum which would which will are working together with the ministries concerned we believe we will change the face of water and sanitation in Nigeria.”
The Registrar/CEO, Environmental Health Council of Nigeria (EHCON), Dr Yakubu Baba stated that the collaboration is a new dawn in the health section and a win-win to change the WASH narrative in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, Baba noted that enforcement and inspection mechanism will be ensured to reduce the number of diseases ravaging communities in Nigeria.
“One of the key area that we will emphasize in our enforcement and inspection mechanism is availability of accessible toilet and we will address this, once this is done and making sure that people have access to water we believe that 75% of the diseases ravaging our communities will be displaced.”
