A non-governmental
organisation, Water, Sanitation For All, has said that over 33 million Nigerians are still practising open defecation.
The coordinator of the organisation, Mr Yunusa Abdullahi, who said this in an interview with newsmen in Port Harcourt, also described open defecation as the greatest challenge to reducing water borne diseases in the country.
He said that the migration of people from the rural areas to the urban areas has made the demand for water supply to be on the increase.
According to him, many urban settlements lacked hygiene facilities resulting in open defecation stressing that this situation posed a threat to the people as the faeces has eventually washed down drinking water source.
The group coordinator also urged for attitudinal change to reducing water borne diseases, adding that it was important for Nigerians to cultivate the habit of cleanliness.
“Sanitation starts with the individual, those things you do involuntarily become your attitude.
“You wake up in the morning, you use the toilet, you flush the toilet, you brush your teeth, you wash your body before going to work, nobody prompts you to do it, you do it, it comes voluntarily and becomes a part of you.
“In a sense, sanitation is personal, those personal things you do, attitudes you cultivate to improve your cleanliness, from there.
“It goes to the family, everybody sweeps in their home, it is part of sanitation, sanitation starts from the family point.
“The garbage you bring out must be disposed properly, so sanitation has a huge role to play in the family, community and to the nation,” he said.
The coordinator said government was doing a lot to improve access to sanitation, although basic access to sanitation in Nigeria still stood at about 41 per cent.
Abdullahi said water was life as 70 per cent of ailments were water related.
He also said cholera, which is a waterborne disease, affected mostly children and adults who lived in unhygienic environments and consumed unwholesome water.
He added that the intake of contaminated foods could also be linked to illnesses.
He, however, called on all Nigerians to cultivate the habit of hand washing to reduce unnecessary deaths from waterborne disease.
“What we are saying is that, as you go on your daily activities, before you eat your food, after shaking hands, interacting in the office, wash your hand.
“You can wash your hands up to four times in the office so as to improve your hygiene to minimise the transmission of diseases.
“Washing your hands with soap or ashes in running water helps to break the transmission of waterborne diseases.
“So, that is what we are advocating that if we can do it for Ebola, we can do it for cholera and others, he said.