The Minister of Water Resources, Engineer Suleiman Adamu has disclosed that 38 Local Government Areas in Nigeria are now Open Defecation-Free (ODF).
The minister said this at the first anniversary of the “Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet Campaign” in Abuja on Thursday.
He said within the one year period of the campaign, the number of ODF LGAs in the country has increased from 16 in 2019 to 38 as at November 2020.
Engineer Adamu noted that additional six LGAs are in the process of being validated as ODF by the National Task Group on Sanitation”
The minister, who said that the ministry was able to achieve the feat despite limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic, commended all partners for their contributions to the success.
“ In recognition of their commitment, the ODF LGAs will be prioritised for water supply interventions under the Partnership for Expanded Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH) in accordance with the established programme protocol,’’ Adamu said.
He frowned at some states which were still not showing any appreciable progress or action in addressing Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) issues especially towards ending open defecation.
“ We recognise that the success of this campaign is dependent on strong engagement with states, LGAs and other stakeholders to secure the needed political and high level commitment required to drive the campaign,” Adamu said.
The minister gave assurance of his ministry’s commitment to building more partnerships within and across sectors to ensure that deliberate and sustained attention needed to end open defecation in the country was in place.
He expressed optimism that the event would motivate states lagging behind to strive towards achieving the intended objectives of the Clean Nigeria Campaign.
Adamu said this would result in a healthy competition that would drive the nation towards ending open defecation by 2025.
In his remarks, the Minister of Environment, Dr. Mahmood Abubakar, urged Nigerians to partner with stakeholders on ending open defecation stressing that open defecation was detrimental to human well-being.
Mr Nicholas Igwe, the Organized Private Sector in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (OPS-WASH) representative, commended the Ministry of Water Resources for the support in the fight against open defecation as well as the launch of OPS-WASH Project“ Flushit’’ at the anniversary celebration.
