2 months ago
7 ARTICLE AD
A new UNICEF report that Nigeria requires approximately 20 million toilets to eliminate open defecation indicates that Africa’s most populous country is off the rails concerning achieving Sustainable Development Goals on universal access to sanitation with just seven years left until 2030.
Federal and state governments and the private sector should develop holistic measures to tackle open defecation effectively. Individuals should change their mental and social orientation for Nigeria to end this unsanitary practice.
Eradicating open defecation is SDG 6.2, according to the UN.
UNICEF’s Chief of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, Jane Bevan, at a recent event in Lagos as part of efforts to end open defecation and eradicate Neglected Tropical Diseases, noted, “We need political will to tackle open defecation. We need to make it real and make washing our hands a priority.”
Open defecation is a massive issue, worsened by the fact that most Nigerians do not take it seriously. Worldmapper, an online resource, says, “The highest total number of people (practising open defecation) live in India, followed by Nigeria and Indonesia.”
Corroborating Bevan, the Deputy Director of the Clean Nigeria Campaign at the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation, Chizoma Opara, explained that about 48 million Nigerians – representing 23 per cent of citizens – still practice open defecation, according to the 2021 WASHNORM report.
Out of this, the North-West has 11 per cent; North-East, 17 per cent; North-Central, 47 per cent; South-West, 24 per cent; South-South, 23 per cent; and South-East, 23 per cent.
According to a 2021 report by the NBS, only 126 of the 774 local government areas have been declared open defecation-free. Jigawa is the only state to have achieved this status, while Katsina State has 27 of its 34 LGAs free from open defecation.
Unfortunately, the toilet situation in Nigeria is an interwoven web of poor urban planning, rural neglect, ignorance, and endemic poverty. From schools to university hostels, stadiums to public hospitals and motor parks, the abject lack of toilets or toilets in horrible states has continued to sustain the shameful practice of open defecation.
Most highway medians in Nigeria are sullied by open defecation. Many Nigerians openly defecate in broad daylight in urban centres.
Last month, the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency and the Ogun State Environmental Protection Agency initiated a campaign to ban open defecation on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Despite the cleaning, monitoring, and arrest of environmental violators, open defecation continues to constitute an eyesore to the road medians along the highway. This scourge needs to be halted.
Health experts have linked open defecation to the spread of sanitation-related diseases, including several NTDs like onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, trachoma, lymphatic filariasis, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis, which are transmitted through contaminated soil and faeces, perpetuating poverty, malnutrition, and ill health.
An estimate by UNICEF shows that Nigeria loses an average of 150,000 children annually to cases of diarrhoea, a problem exacerbated by poor toilet facilities and lack of sanitation.
Governments should invest in building more public toilets, incentivise toilet use, and continuously sensitise the public against open defecation.
Private firms and religious centres should provide mobile toilets and other public facilities. Nigeria should consider policies that involve processing waste into energy and develop public access to toilets that line with citizens’ lifestyles and social habits.
The LGAs, states, and federal agencies should launch achievable targets to provide toilets with running water.
After a period of sensitisation and warnings, state authorities should clamp down on open defecation. Punishment should be next after this.
