The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called on the Bauchi government to initiate a policy to ensure effective faecal sludge management.

UNICEF’s chief of field office, Tushar Rane, made the call in Bauchi on Tuesday during a three-day workshop.

According to him, poor practices around faecal disposal present a devastating health impact on people, especially children and women.

He explained that the strategy document developed from the workshop would present approaches toward enabling the environment needed to implement and regulate safe faecal sludge management in Bauchi.

The UNICEF chief added that the document would include technical guidelines, standard operating procedures, monitoring and evaluation framework and the estimated investments needed for faecal sludge management in Bauchi.

The commissioner for environment and housing, Danlami Kaule, thanked UNICEF for the technical support provided to Bauchi. He said the collection, transportation, treatment and end-use or reuse of excreta constituted the faecal sludge management value chain.

He added, “I’m sure you will all agree with me that faecal sludge management has been very poor in most of our states, but the story is now changing in Bauchi state. 

“The Bauchi State Environmental Protection Agency (BASEPA), as a regulating agency under the Ministry of Environment, is doing good work by formalising key actors along the faecal sludge value chain in the state.

“The agency has come up with draft guidelines for faecal sludge management and organised a series of capacity-building workshops to faecal sludge manual and mechanised emptiers across the state.”

(NAN)