By Ojeka Odey
The Yakurr Local Government Council WASH Department in collaboration with UNICEF joined the rest of the world to commemorate the “Global Hand Washing Day 2016 in Ugep with the theme, “Make Hand Washing a Habit”.
As part of activities marking the day, the Rural Water and Sanitation Agency (RUWASA) Yakurr unit trained Environmental Health Club (EHC) members from schools in Yakurr.
While speaking, Mr. Collins Njoku Yakurr RUWASA Consultant maintained that, “Hygiene related diseases such as diarrhea causes one in five Nigeria children to die each year, but almost half of the deaths are preventable by washing hands with soap and clean water”.
Furthermore, he said, “Children are the major focus of this campaign; we must all put our hands on deck to make them see the importance of washing of their hands. Hand washing with soap is extremely effective and the most inexpensive way to prevent diarrhea and acute respiratory infections. It is good to turn hand washing into habit”.
On his part, Mr. Michael the Yakurr Education Secretary hoped that “This workshop will help create awareness on the need to practice effective hand washing in our schools”.
He concluded by urging all and sundry to make it a habit to wash hands regularly with clean water.