JAYAPURA, PAPUA – Acting Governor of Papua Muhammad Ridwan Rumasukun encouraged seven regencies in the Papua region to immediately achieve the target of 100 percent of villages and sub-districts to stop or free open defecation this year, “Open defecation behavior cannot be underestimated. Open Defecation is a serious problem that has a detrimental impact on the environment, and has the potential to transmit germs such as diarrhea, typhoid, dysentery or cholera. Even children who often experience these diseases, of course, their growth and development will not be optimal and can eventually lead to stunting and even death,” said Ridwan Rumasukun.
According to Ridwan Rumasukun, currently only Biak Numfor Regency and Jayapura City have reached 100 percent stop open defecation and his party encourages the two regions to immediately realize safe sanitation, in accordance with the mandate of sustainable development goals, “So I express my deepest appreciation and appreciation to all parties present at this meeting, hopefully the results of the workshop can have a positive effect to immediately encourage the achievement of Papua Province as the first stop open defecation province in the Land of Papua,” hoped Ridwan Rumasukun.
UNICEF Papua Representative Aminuddin Ramdan explained the importance of good sanitation in villages and sub-districts to overcome stunting and because sanitation also has many links to other disease issues such as polio, which is transmitted through human feces.
According to data collected by the institution, there are 500 villages in Papua that are still not free from open defecation, which means that the practice of open defecation in various regions still occurs massively, which has the potential to transmit diseases, “Therefore, through this workshop, we hope that there will be follow-up from the Papua Provincial Government to encourage circulars as well as accelerate to the Regents, so that the villages are given latrine facilities for those who do not have them, then for those who already have them but still practice open defecation, we continue to socialize them to change their behavior,” hoped Aminuddin Ramdan.
Ramdan on that occasion hoped that the role of traditional leaders, community leaders and even religious leaders to help socialize changes in people’s behavior so as not to do open defecation, “Like religious leaders for example in their sermons in churches might be able to slip the words stop open defecation associated with clean living and because these leaders are certainly role models who are certainly heard by the people or congregation,” said Ramdan.
