Two years after the launch of the Open Defecation Free Nigeria Project, 24 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have not contributed any Local Government Area to the national statistics.
This was the grim statistics that was let out by the federal Ministry of Water Resources when it brought stakeholders together in Abuja to discuss ways to achieve the target of making Nigeria open defecation free by 2025.
Speaking during the opening ceremony of the two-day national retreat for states on the “Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet Campaign,” the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mrs Didi Walson-Jack, said Nigeria has been able to record 76 Local Government Areas from 12 states that are Open Defecation Free.
She said the retreat is bringing together the Commissioners responsible for Local Governments, the General Managers of States Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agencies and other organizations that are charged with delivering sanitation and hygiene services across the 36 States and FCT.
“As at January 2022, only 76 Open Defecation Free (ODF) LGAs have been recorded. While this is a good progress, it is not significant enough to put us on course our national target of an ODF Nigeria by 2025. Also, the spread of the 76 ODF LGAs is limited to 12 out of the 36 States and FCT. This means that 24 States and the FCT have not been able to contribute any ODF LGAs to the national statistics.
Speaking on the importance of Nigeria meeting the 2025 target, Walson-Jack said that besides the exposure to diseases caused by open defecation, there are also issues of lack of dignity, violence and inconvenience experienced especially by women and girls.
“Achieving this will require the involvement of all stakeholders and it is in this regard that this national retreat is organized to include the participation of key stakeholders to strategically think through how we can accelerate successful approaches in meeting our objectives,” she said.
The 2-day retreat is to help identify the challenge being faced by States in rolling out their campaigns and delivering results to put them on course for an ODF Nigeria by 2025.
Also, Director Water Policy, Mr. Emmanuel Awe, said the retreat was aimed at reviewing the progress being made on the clean Nigeria programme.
He said retreat communiqué, which is one of the outputs of this retreat, will help to provide the needed direction for the sanitation and hygiene sub-sector going forward.
“It is our hope that the next two days will be interactive and explorative leading to an invigorated campaign roll out across all States.
Mrs Chisom Opara, CNC National Coordinator, while presenting the objectives of the retreat said stakeholders’ need to work together as even some local government commissioners in some states don’t even know some local governments in their states are open defecation free.
“It is important that we see together and draw our plans on how to further end open defecation in Nigeria. After this workshop, we will be looking at zonal review.”
Also speaking, the WaterAid Nigeria Country Director, Evelyn Mere, says access to adequate sanitation and hygiene services is critical to the socio-economic development of a nation and is a major contributor to early childhood survival, health, nutrition, and attainment of educational outcomes.
According to her, Nigeria ranks first among countries in Africa with the highest population of people without decent toilets and loses billions every year in health care costs, a loss of productivity, premature deaths, and poor educational outcomes because of open defecation.
