Franca Ochigbo, Abuja
Minister of State Ministry of Environment Sharon Ikeazor, has said an estimated 4.7 million Nigerians live without improved toilet and many still practise open defecation.
The minister said they use the bush and water as their regular means of human waste disposal which is very unhealthy.
Ikeazor spoke at the 2019 World Toilet Day in Abuja, with the theme: Toilet for All.
She said many institutions did not have sanitary facilities and where they existed, they were either not functioning or misused.
“According to the National Demographic and health survey, access to improved sanitation is very poor below 36 per cent for majority of the populace.
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“It is worthy to note that absence of adequate sanitary facilities in schools constitute a great threat to school enrolment, particularly for the female child.
“Provision of sanitary facilities in schools must go hand-in-hand with other efforts to achieve basic education in the country. One of the consequences of poor excreta disposal is the high rate of diarrhoea disease which is a second cause of high morbidity and mortality amongst children under the age of five.
“Sanitation crisis if allowed to continue will undermine the overreaching ambition of the 2030 agenda, to build safe, more resilient societies on a healthy planet and this means failure to attain the Sustainable Development Goal”.
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