The regional health director of Lower River Health Region has revealed that open defecation is still practiced in the region, citing poverty as one of the main causes.
Mr. Bolong S. Jobarteh told GRTS recently that though open defecation has been consigned to the past in some relatively affluent communities, it was still a problem in the poverty-stricken communities of Lower River Region.
“Open defecation is not a problem in this community,” the regional health director pointed out. He added: “But it’s still existing in the Lower River Region. We are trying to do away with it. How do we do away with it? The government of the Gambia, with support of UNICEF, has gone all out to provide them with facilities and very good initiative for that matter.”
The regional health director attributed LRR’s “open defecation problem” partly to poverty.
“You go to certain communities, you have only female compound heads. They are powerless. They don’t have the finance,” he told the state broadcaster.
