It is certainly no cheering news for Kwara and Plateau being currently tagged by the Federal Government as states with the highest population in open defecation.
Director of Water Quality Control and Sanitation, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mr Emmanuel Awe, who dropped the distressing dossiers on both states, however demanded concerted efforts from all Nigerians towards ending the open defecation practice.
Speaking at the 2021 First Quarter Lunch Time Seminar for Media Executives in Abuja, Awe said the Ministry has already inaugurated about 77,400 Youth volunteers to act as Hygiene Ambassadors towards scaling up sanitation and hygiene protocols across the country.
He explained that the current data emanated 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, Nigeria sadly still leads among countries with the highest number of persons defecating openly, adding that no fewer than N455 billion is lost annually to poor sanitation.
Awe said 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 the impact of poor sanitation is clearly visible in underdevelopment of children; loss of manpower; and low socioeconomic development among others.
The Director further blamed open defecation as a major contributor to rising cases of kidnapping and sexual violence, noting that this could occur as a result of searching for convenient places to answer the call of nature.
“Open defecation contributes to rape and kidnapping cases that we hear about lately, we want everyone to take ownership of building and using their toilets at all times”, he averred.
In his intervention, the Ministry’s Director of Water Supply, Mr Benson Ajisegiri, said they were working to improve access to potable water through the Partnership for Expanded Water Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH) programme.
He said the plan is to focus on improving capacity; and repairing broken down schemes; adding that strengthening sector infrastructure remains critical to changing poor narrative of state water agencies.
Ajisegiri also said through the PEWASH interventions, 25 states have declared state of emergency in the water and sanitation sector.
He explained that the development has seen more commitment towards improving access to potable water in the country. – With NAN reports
