Residents in Borno urged to stop construction of sewage pits outside their compounds

By: Bodunrin Kayode

The Director of Public and Community Health of the Borno State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Mala Abdulwahab has called on residents of the state to stop building sewage pits outside their homes.

The Director lamented recently that some residents even channel faeces from their homes into general drainage systems in the metropolis and that he noted has contributed to the spread of a lot of communicable diseases in the state.

Mala made the observations during a recent round table review on the prevalence of zero dose children with Bulamas of eight affected council areas in the state.

Dr Mala called on residents to stop the wrong practice of building their soakaways far outside their residential homes into government lands and streets not designed for such purposes.

He called on the Borno State Environmental Protection Agency (BOSEPA) to do more in ensuring that the badly affected gutters of the city are cleared from dangerous garbages and pollutants which can cause infections like polio and many other diseases.

Mala expressed dissatisfaction about the State of some of the gutters in the city of Maiduguri which has become direct avenues for sewage to be emptied from some houses adding that it is high time residents stop construction of soakaways outside their compounds but rather take them into their compounds.

The Director called on residents to repent from some of these deliberate acts by changing their ways concerning the weaknesses in the hygiene level of greater Maiduguri which was badly exposed during the last September flood which enveloped the entire city centre.

Mala regretted that up till now, a lot of kids have not taken the penta dose of the vaccines slated for age (0 to 59) months adding that they should do something about changing the wrong narrative prevalent in the state.

The Director called on the Local immunization officers (LIO’s) to listen to the challenges of the people as they carry out the campaigns adding that results can only be gotten when there is collaboration between them and the residents.

He said that there was need for the next batch of campaigners in conjunction with the LIO’S to work hard to clear off these challenges which increases the prevalence of zero doses in the state.

Mala further called for the extension of their times within the schedule of routine immunization where necessary adding that the LIO’s and their teams should really mind how these lingering lapses can be corrected for success to be achieved against the next campaign.

On their approach to expected resistances from residents, he advised them to be as modest as possible even as they avoid any temptation of over dressing coupled with outright display of flamboyant life styles in the name of serious grassroot campaigns like this.

Dr Mala advised that messages from immunization officers would only be accepted when there is freedom of expression from traditional rulers and the council of ulamas.

The director of community health regretted that some of the LIO’s are weak adding that they are supposed to be stronger than they are being portrayed within the contemporary primary health sector

Reactions from the round table

During a question and answer session after a presentation by Ishmael Auwal, participants were advised to reduce the prevalence of too much English language in their campaigns stressing that English has increased the bane of misunderstanding among some locals adding that there is need to embed local language translators into the system when developing such plans.

According to Auwal, most of the children placed in this categorization can be found both in the rural and urban areas of these seven primary council areas and most of them speak only the local language in their council areas.

The major zero dose council areas are Damboa, Gubio, Jere, Mmc, mafa, konduga, Mongunu and Gamboru Ngala.

Penta to him is a major package because it contains five in one vaccines wrapped inside for the children to consume.

Residents in Borno urged to stop construction of sewage pits outside their compounds