Garissa County Government officials on Thursday spearheaded a campaign seeking to eradicate open defecation in the county as well as promote recommendable sanitary practices in an effort to reduce disease outbreaks.
Deputy Director of Preventative and Promotive Health services Ibrahim Gedi said the county health department will conduct campaigns meant to eliminate open defecation in different areas.
Gedi said the campaign will seek to address sanitation problems by sensitising the locals on the importance of living in clean and healthy environments, adding that the county government is committed to declaring free open defecation by end of December 2019.
The health department wants the use of bush toilets to be a thing of the past as it seeks to have every household have a pit latrine to curb disease outbreaks during rainy seasons.
“The supervision and the goal of Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is to improve sanitation and hygienic practices in a community. It focuses on spontaneous and long-lasting behavioural change of an entire community and the ultimate goal of CLTS is to end open defecation,” said Gedi, as quoted by the Garissa County Government Press Unit.
The county health department will target at least 750 villages during the campaign.