Several rural villages in Kisumu County still practice defecation where majority still ease themselves in the bushes.
This raises the chances of disease outbreak especially during rainy season. According to the County Director of health Dr Lusi Ojwang, 73 per cent of the villages still practice open defecation.
She said that more than Sh740 million is used every year on illnesses that are related to poor sanitation.
In a statement sent to the media today, Dr Ojwang stated that the county government in partnership with the Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) has organised a stakeholder forum next week to discuss means of mitigating the disturbing trend. She added that rural informal settlements are worse due to lack of basic infrastructure.
“This meeting is intended to bring together all the stakeholders responsible to deliberate on the state of sanitation in the county and come up with a way forward,” stated the doctor.
Kisumu town management has been evacuating various businesses constructed in undesignated areas in a means to reorganize the town and clean it up. This included evicting hundreds of hawkers from Oile market.
The county hosts major informal settlements such as Nyalenda, Manyatta and Obunga and is currently ranked tenth nationally in terms of better hygiene although the rural ground status are heart breaking and disappointing.
The main dump-site is located in the central business district next to one of the largest supermarket investment in the region, Nakumatt Mega which worsens the case.