* FG urges stakeholders to improve access to WASH
* Bayelsa leads in open defecation in south-south
Augustine Aminu, Fatima Saka and Nneka Nwogwugwu
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, (UNICEF) has described as worrisome the alarming number Nigerians indulging in open defecation.
The UNICEF said an alarming statistics of 23% of the country population which translate to 48 million people still indulge in open defecation, which constitutes to hazardous pollution of the environment.
The Chief WASH Officer of UNICEF, Jane Ben revealed this over the week in Abuja, at the 2022 National Environmental sanitation Day
The Chief WASH lamented that it is quite a shocking number of people, adding that the office health repercussions of such an issue is very clear, giving instances of cholera disease that is widespread in Nigeria at the moment.
“Threatening to call for state of emergency in an events like this, the day of sanitation to really bring emphasis to this issue. We cannot proceed with business as normal. We really need to step up and accelerate the progress and coverage on sanitation wherever possible. And as I’m sure you’re aware, also the SDGs for which the goal is 2030 raising the bar in terms of sanitation.
“So we need to talk about safely managed sanitation and that means not only containing feces, but disposing of them safely. So when pits are remitted, they need to be in proper waste disposal sites where it’s treated and made harmless because if we just dispose in the environment, then of course, all we’re doing is moving the risk from one place to another.
“And finally, hygiene; recently the roadmap for hygiene for Nigeria was launched and that was supported by UNICEF and who but mainly all of the partners in hygiene and in Environmental sanitation were involved in developing.
“We need to implement it, we need to act on it and really ensure that hand washing is happening in Nigeria and there is another quite shocking statistic in the norms of 99% of people that is virtually everybody have the knowledge about how washing a critical times.
Only 8% practice it, we all know when that we should be washing our hands, but hardly anybody is doing it. So all of this is behavior change that we think we’re doing. We’re not we’re promoting hand washing but we’re not changing behavior.
So I would beg you all to really consider how with your everyday actions and in your work, we can promote hand washing, to really the greater good of all,” she stated.
A report from Bayelsa State also indicated in the South-South region of Nigeria has high tendency of open defecation.
This was deduced after NatureNews correspondent analysed the rate of open defecation in Southern states.
According to a study tilted, “Open defecation free (ODF) milestone in Nigeria: Implications for primary healthcare (PHC) in Bayelsa State,” published last year, in recent policy briefing report, only 27/774 (3.49%) local governments in Nigeria have been declared ODF and none from Bayelsa state is included.
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The study also noted that “people traditionally defecate into surface waters as well as in bushes in Bayelsa.
“This traditional behaviour is attributed to lack of access to sanitation facilities. Indeed, a purposive field survey show that OD at these places is still being practiced, especially by travellers who stop indiscriminately when pressed and those attending markets where there is no toilet.”
The Federal Government has urged all relevant stakeholders to intensify effort on improving access to Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), as it will bring open defecation in the country to an end.
Adamu said that efforts by states, local governments and other stakeholders would arrest the development of open defecation practice.
He said that the Federal Government would promote a sustainable access to good WASH at all levels of government.
Adamu said that his ministry had trained about 100 volunteers from the 36 states on advocacy to improve sanitation in various communities.
“The ministry sent the volunteers out to various communities to engage in awareness on how the communities can improve on WASH and they have done relatively good work.
“At least you can see even the reduced incidences of COVID-19 pandemic will probably be supported and there is a lot of awareness going on, on how to prevent the spread of the pandemic.
“But for us, what is most important is that these 100 volunteers per local government are vanguards for the continued advocacy to improve WASH in our communities,” he said.
Also, a region-wide analysis of the progress on Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) implementation, further brings out the status of CLTS in the six geo-political regions of the country.
The percentage of communities declaring ODF is highest in South-East (78%) followed by North-Central (65%) and North-East (57%). The remaining three regions show less progress, in terms of communities declaring themselves as ODF.
Confirming the state government’s response to open defecation, NatureNews recalls that the governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri assured that under the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project, his administration would collaborate with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to stop the menace, as it is one of the indices of development.
Diri said this in August 2022, while reacting to the National Water Resources Bill before the National Assembly.
In response to open defecation in the state, he also said some of the initiatives the state government had put in place to end the era of open defecation include setting up of the Bayelsa State Council for Water Resources and approval of N250 million for the WASH project this year.
He also directed the Commissioner for Water Resources to ensure that the 3.6 million-litre federal government water scheme at Otuoke is resuscitated, adding that the Yenagoa, Ovom and Okaka water stations had been rehabilitated.
He said as of today, 83 local government areas in the country were open defecation free and the ministry was currently working in Brass and Kolokuma/ Opokuma local government areas in the state in collaboration with UNICEF towards ending open defecation in the areas.
Supporting the governors’ statement, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources Dame Didi Walson-Jack, said 83 local government areas in the country were open defecation free and the ministry was currently working in Brass and Kolokuma/ Opokuma local government areas in the state in collaboration with UNICEF towards ending open defecation in the areas.
While promising to provide technical support to resuscitate the water scheme at Otuoke, the minister solicited the partnership of the state government towards ensuring that the six other local government areas attained the status of open defecation free by 2025, which is the national set target.
