By Bisola Adeyemo
No fewer than N455 billion have been lost annually to poor sanitation in Nigeria, as Federal Government identified Kwara and Plateau as the states with the highest population in open defecation.
The Director, Water Quality Control and Sanitation, Ministry of Water Resources, Mr Emmanuel Awe, disclosed this at the 2021 First Quarter Lunch Time Seminar for Media Executives in Abuja, on Friday.
Awe said the ministry has inaugurated 77,400 Youth volunteers to act as hygiene ambassadors towards scaling up sanitation and hygiene in the country.
He said that the data was gotten from the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping Survey (WASH-NORM), launched in 2018 to fill the chronic gaps in monitoring and routine assessment of the status of the WASH services in Nigeria.
According to him, vanguard gathered that Nigeria still ranks the highest country with the highest number of persons defecating openly adding that if the country could invest more in sanitation infrastructure, there would be sustainable ways of safe disposal of wastes, business opportunities, and improved productivity for all.
He said that the impact of poor sanitation was seen in the underdevelopment of children, “Open defecation contributes to rape and kidnapping cases that we hear about lately, we want everyone to take ownership of the building and using their toilets at all times.”
Mr Benson Ajisegiri, Director, Water Supply with the ministry, said the ministry was working to improve access to potable water through the Partnership for Expanded Water Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH) programme.