The Water Sanitation and
Hygiene (WASH) Coordinator, Mrs Sarah Ode,  in  Cross River,  has urged Nigerians to build and make use of their toilets to reduce the spread of faecal-oral diseases.
Ode, who made this call in an interview with our correspondent  in  Abuja, said sanitation is wealth and that was what differentiated man from animals.
She explained that ‘Faecal-oral transmission’ means spread of virus, bacteria or parasites from the human or animal stool to your mouth.
According to her, such diseases like; cholera, typhoid and diarrhea occur when contaminated faeces from an infected person were somehow ingested by another person.
She said it was also important for Nigerians to cultivate the habit of washing their hands regularly to break the cycle of transmission of disease into the body.
“What usually happens is that infected people might forget to properly wash their hands after using the toilet; another example involves people infected with faecal-oral disease who prepare food.
“It is very important for food handlers to have good hand washing culture because they can easily spread a faecal-oral disease through their prepared food to anyone who eats it,” she said.
Ode urged Nigerians to ensure that what they eat was not contaminated; adding that drinking water from lakes and swimming pools should be discouraged by all.
She said the importance of toilets cannot be over emphasised, as it creates avenue for promotion of human health and cleanliness.
Ode said not having a toilet dehumanises man, thereby creating room for open defecation to thrive.
“When you have markets, bus terminals, schools and you find out that a lot of people converge in these areas, when these facilities are not provided and nature calls, they defecate indiscriminately.
“But when these facilities are put in place, our public places will be in order, because whoever is pressed at those point in time, there is a place for him to go and defecate.
“By so doing, we are promoting human health, cleanliness, and beautification, also, you don’t have odour,” she said.
According to estimates from UNICEF and WHO published in 2013, a staggering 768 million people worldwide do not have access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
This, they say, cause illnesses and preventable deaths in hundreds of thousands of children each year while most of the people without access are poor and live in rural areas or urban slums.