Group Urges Strong Political Commitment To End Open Defecation

A Group, the Clean Environment Initiative (CEI), yesterday advised governments at all levels to show strong political commitment to end open defecation in the country.
The Executive Secretary of CEI, Mrs Oluwatosin Ayanda, gave the advice in an interview with newsmen in Osogbo.
Ayanda said it was disheartening that Nigeria ranked second among countries practising open defecation in the world, and first in Africa.
She said that for the country to come out of this practice, there was the need for government to be more committed to ending open defecation by building more toilets in public places, and increasing awareness on the danger of such practice.
Ayanda said the 2018 Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) National Outcome Routing Mapping (WASH NORM) Survey, showed that 47 million Nigerians practised open defecation.
According to her, to overcome this challenge, UNICEF statistics revealed that Nigeria needed two million toilets per year between 2019 and 2015 to achieve the target of Universal Basic Sanitation.
Ayanda, who noted that open defecation could bring about disease and poverty, appealed to government to increase budgetary allocation to the WASH sector.