Group sensitizing Embu residents on importance of toilets

A Catholic Church  Development Unit has embarked on sensitizing residents of Embu County on the importance of constructing toilets in the homesteads to promote hygiene instead of using bushes to relief themselves.

Programme Coordinator, Simon Njeru Njiru, says most residents have been relieving themselves in the bush other than constructing toilets in their homes.

He said that using the bushes as toilets is one of the leading sources of diseases associated with unhygienic living conditions.

According to Njeru, who was speaking after Friday’s home visits in the region, the group has visited more than 13 villages out of the targeted 72 which are most affected.

In November 2015, the United Nations revealed that 2.4 billion people around the world  do not have access to decent sanitation and more than a billion are forced to defecate in the open, risking disease and other dangers.

According to the United Nations, poor sanitation increases the risk of illness and malnutrition, especially for children.

“One out of three women around the world lack access to safe toilets,” UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, said in a statement. “As a result, they face disease, shame and potential violence when they seek a place to defecate.”