Kediri Regent Said, Awareness Of Defecation In Latrines Is Not 100 Percent Yet

Kediri Regent Hanindhito Himawan Pramana (Photo via Antara)

JAKARTA - Kediri Regent Hanindhito Himawan Pramana revealed that the level of public awareness of defecating in latrines or toilets in their area is not yet 100 percent.

The regent stated that his area is included in open defecation free (ODF) or open defecation at this time 23 percent, and in latrines 77 percent so that this number needs to be increased, it is even expected to reach 100 percent by 2024.

"This must be a concern for village heads and sub-district heads in Kediri Regency. My target is by 2024, of the remaining 23 percent, they must defecate in the right place," said Regent Hanindhito Himawan during the ODF declaration at the Village Hall/District Badas, Monday. August 22, reported by Antara.

His party has a program related to this sanitation. Residents receive sanitation assistance and latrines who are beneficiaries of community-based total sanitation stimulant assistance (STBM) or latrine stimulants.

According to him, actually people's awareness of defecating in the latrine or toilet has increased, but it needs to be improved.

To realize public awareness of defecating in latrines, the district government is aggressively providing education.

There are five instruments or pillars of the STBM program, namely not defecating openly, washing hands with soap, managing safe drinking water and food, managing household waste safely, and managing household liquid waste safely.

With these five instruments, it is expected to be able to realize clean and hygienic total sanitation conditions through community empowerment.

"This program essentially intervenes so that people's behavior is hygienic or free from environmental diseases," he said.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Kediri District Health Office, Dr. Achmad Khotib, said that the level of public awareness to defecate is not careless indeed has improved compared to last year.

According to him, this is shown by the increase in 53 villages that are included in the ODF village category in 2022.

Based on data from the Health Office (Dinkes) of Kediri Regency, as of August 2022 as many as seven sub-districts and 173 villages or a total of 268 villages have been included in the ODF category.

"This year there is progress compared to 2021, there are 53 additional villages," he said.

On that occasion, the Regent also directly checked the sanitation in the homes of the beneficiaries of the community-based total sanitation stimulant assistance.

The regent had a dialogue with the house owners and they stated that they were helped by the program, because now they already have latrine or toilet facilities.