Ending Open Defecation In Nigeria

The United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently gave an indication that it would develop a road map for Nigeria to end open defecation by 2025.
The organisation hold the belief that by eliminating open defecation, rampant cases of  diarrhoea that  kill many children of less than five years annually in the country, would reduce.
Observers note that open defecation — the practice of excreting in public and around the local community—is rampant because not every citizen has access to toilets, latrines or improved sanitation, especially in developing countries.
For instance, the United Nations states that no fewer than 82 per cent of the 1.1 billion people practising open defecation live in India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Niger, Nepal, China and Mozambique.
Health experts, therefore, solicit aggressive advocacy more access of people to basic sanitation during the World Toilet Day, usually celebrated on every November 19.
In 2013, the UN recognised the Day to give global attention to the provision of basic sanitation and discourage the practice of open-air defecation.
The experts insist that the campaign in Nigeria, during the celebration, should aim at ending open defecation by 2025.
They call on governments, civil society, business and international organisations to take collective actions towards ensuring that people have access to basic sanitation.
They observe that open defecation causes contamination to water bodies and poses a serious threat to public health, particularly during flooding.
UNICEF, therefore, underscores the need for pragmatic efforts at eliminating open defecation to ensure reduction in the cases of diarrhoea, especially among children.
It states that no fewer than 90 per cent of diarrhoea cases among children of less than five years is related to unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene.
“By improving sanitation, we can improve child survival as well as the environment,’’ it said.
Sharing similar sentiments, Mr Chris Williams, the Executive Director of Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, said that open defecation posed a serious health risk in the world’s poorer countries.
“People who do not have access to a hygienic toilet and a place to wash their hands are exposed to an array of transmissible and potentially deadly diseases that are easily preventable with improved sanitation.
“That is why we have to make equitable access to improved sanitation a key priority in the post-2015 development agenda.
“An environment that lacks sanitation and clean water is an environment where achieving other development goals is an impossible dream,’’ he said.
In the same vein, stakeholders at a recent workshop on “Ending Open Defecation’’ in Abuja, resolved that Nigerian authority must provide mechanisms aimed at ending open defecation.
They suggested that enlightening the communities on the need to maintain clean environment by using Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach would help in that regard.
CLTS is a process of engaging and empowering community members, schools and traditional leaders in the campaign against open defecation by encouraging the use of toilets constructed by locally available materials.
The participants also stressed the need for collaboration with relevant government ministries, departments and agencies, non-governmental organisations, donors such as European Union and UK Aid, to boost CLTS initiative.
But one of the participants, Mr Samuel Ome, the Director of Water Quality and Control, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, said government had put in place mechanisms to reduce the spate of open defecation across the country.
“With continuous support from governments and other development partners in scaling up this approach, more Nigerians will live in open defecation free communities.
“Although the current sanitation coverage is low at 31 per cent successful, models such as CLTS approach have already demonstrated that it is possible to achieve quick progress in access to sanitation,’’ he said.
Ome said that with the right prioritisation of resources, political will and collective efforts, Nigeria would make substantial progress towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on sanitation.
Stressing the significance of stopping open defecation, UNICEF Nigeria Country Representative Jean Gough, said it would save the lives of thousands of Nigerian children that died annually from preventable water and sanitation related diseases.
She said when people defecate in open places; the rain will wash the excreta into the rivers, streams or open wells, where the same people will fetch the water for their consumption.
“A community where people defecate indiscriminately, domestic animals could feed on them, and when the animals come back into the house, they put the mouth into whatever they find open including water, food and kitchen utensils.
“Sometimes, wind can blow the excreta into the food or water and the people drink, so the consequence is sickness,’’ Gough said.
Corroborating her view, UNICEF Water and Sanitation Specialist Bisi Agberemi, observed that more than 49 million Nigerians still defecate openly.
He said that Nigerian government must accelerate efforts to eliminate open defecation in the country.
He noted that while 64 per cent of the world’s population had access to improved sanitation, it was sad to note that Nigeria was still among the top 10 countries practising open defecation.
He said that the National Demographic Health Survey in 2013 showed that only 28.7 million Nigerians had access to basic sanitation facilities.
Agberemi called for the review of obsolete public health laws and implementation of policies to meet the target of achieving open defecation environment in 2025.
He also called for increased funding of sanitation issues; saying that awareness should be promoted at all levels of government.
“We must all work together to advocate for the harmonisation of sanitation policies and cultivate attitude of cleanliness at all times,’’ he said.
Irrespective of various views of stakeholders, Mr Salisu Lonis, the Secretary of National Task Group on Sanitation, said that Nigeria was on track to ending open defecation before the 2025 deadline.
Lonis said the country had keyed into the UN End-Open-Defecation and Global Hand washing Campaigns as processes to eliminate transmission of water borne diseases.
According to him, the government is collaborating with development partners to create awareness on access to water and basic sanitation in public places.
He insisted that the outcome of the National Council on Sanitation showed that Nigeria had made progress in its efforts at ending open defecation as targeted.
All in all, health experts believe that effective implementation of CLTS project across the country would boost other efforts aimed at ending open defecation in Nigeria as targeted.
Kolade writes for News Agency of Nigeria.

Tosin Kolade

Cross section of staff of Rivers State Waste Management Agency, and guests during the donation of compactor truck to RIWAMA by Mobil Production in Port Harcourt last Wednesday Photo: Chris Monyanaga