*48m citizens lack toilet access
*worst cases in Kwara, Kogi, Benue
- Do well to ensuring save drinking water – minister
Augustine Aminu and Fatima Saka
With an estimated number of 48 million persons lacking access to toilets, Nigeria is among the nations in the world with the highest number of people practicing open defecation.
Despite adopting a road map in 2016, to eliminate open defecation in Nigeria by 2025, checks revealed that Nigeria has not made progress over the last three years in the fight against open defecation.
So far, only 71 out of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas are now declared ‘open defecation-free.’
In November 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari declared a state of emergency in the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector and launched a National Action Plan tagged ‘Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet’ to jump-start the country’s journey towards becoming open defecation-free.
But the practice has persisted and health and environmental experts express worry that it is having a negative effect on the populace, especially children, in the areas of health and education.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that Nigeria needs to invest about N1.9 trillion to address WASH problems and end open defecation by 2025.
With barely 3 years to the set target, many states are yet to develop their state Action Plan on open defecation which is stalling progress.
Currently, the states with the highest rates of open defecation are Kwara, Plateau, and Ebonyi. Those with the lowest rates are Abia, Zamfara, and Akwa Ibom.
In October 2019, Nigeria overtook India with a population almost seven times bigger and a land area three-and-a-half times bigger than Nigeria, to become the number one open defecation nation globally.
Experts say progress is slow and the goal cannot be achieved until the Nigerian government takes consistent, deliberate actions.
The Minister for Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu during the week charged the state units to do better in eradicating open defecation and ensuring provision of safe drinking water, following the release of the water sanitation and hygiene National outcome routine mapping 2021.
The Minister made this known in Abuja on Tuesday as he explained the differences in previous reports and its implications for ensuring National water hygiene.
Adamu urged States to do better in eradication of open defecation as he analyzed the 2021 water sanitation and hygiene National outcome routine mapping and the effect of population growth.
Speaking on, the Minister of state for health, Olorunnimbe Mamora drew attention to the health aspects of ensuring supply of clean water.
Also, Jane Benvan Chief of WASH at UNICEF suggested sustaining existing schemes rather than making new ones as the statistician general Semiyu Adeniran spoke about the difficulties in getting the data for the report.
The 2021 WASH NORM is the 3rd time in a series of National assessments of the status of WASH services. According to the report 48 million people practice open defecation and only 10% of the population has access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene devices.
