As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to commemorate the 2018 World Toilet Day, some development partners and coalition of civil societies have urged tiers of government to prioritize funding.
On Monday that prioritization of sanitation at all levels through the value chain of capturing safe disposal of faeces and improve budget allocations to the sector would go a long way to reduce spread of diseases.
A report “The Crisis in the Classroom”, WaterAid’s fourth-annual analysis of the world’s toilets, shows that the education and health of millions of children is threatened by a lack of access to toilets at school and at home.
It highlights that one-in-five primary schools and one-in-eight secondary schools globally do not have any toilets.
Also, one-in-three of the world’s schools lack adequate toilets, compromising children’s human rights to sanitation and leaving them to either use dirty, unsafe pits, defecate in the open, or stay at home.
WaterAid Nigeria Country Director, Dr ChiChi Aniagolu-Okoye, said toilets could make the difference between a child attending school, coming late or staying at home, adding that school attendance and participation could be greatly enhanced just by providing toilets.
“Schools are where children learn how to become wholesome human beings and good toilet behaviour is a fundamental, yet children are going to schools with them.
“It is shocking that Nigeria ranks third in the world with the greatest number of individuals with no access to a decent toilet. This is unacceptable and even sadder as it contributes to the deaths of nearly 60,000 children under five every year from diarrhea.’’
The country director urged tiers of government to invest more money in sanitation and ensure an integrated approach and improved transparency in monitoring and reporting.
She called on education and finance ministers at state and national levels, as well as donors, to invest in sanitation services and establish credible plans for achieving universal access within an agreed time frame.
She also called for better coordination between key sectors ministries to develop, implement and monitor joint programmes to measure the impact of interventions and contribute to data availability.
According to her, School sanitation to meet the specific needs of girls in order to ensure their privacy, safety and dignity when managing menstruation and on other school days should be prioritized.
“School sanitation should to be inclusive, enabling children with disabilities to use clean, safe, accessible toilets at school.’’
Mr Benson Attah, the National Coordinator, Society for Water and Sanitation, expressed worry over state government’s low priority toward improving access to water and sanitation in the country.
According to him, there is the need for the states to prioritize provision of these needs, as it is saddening to see that open defecation practice still occurs at a large scale.
While commending efforts of the Federal Government toward improving access to water and sanitation, Attah called for immediate implementation of progammes that would reverse these trends.
“Nigeria is presently being shielded by India, India is number one in countries with the largest open defecators, once India moves out, Nigeria will be exposed to that embarrassment.
“We hope we are able to overtake India before it moves out of that list, it is saddening that Nigeria as the giant of Africa is leading Africa in countries with the largest open defecation statistics.
“ Nigeria is the second in the world behind India, in terms of having the highest number of people defecating in the open, while in Africa, it ranks first.’’
The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2017 reports reveal that 28.5 per cent of Nigeria’s population practice open defecation and 110 million people lack access to improved sanitation.
A report by the World Bank Data and a 2017 WaterAid Report, says over 122 million Nigerians still lack access to basic sanitation facilities, ranking Nigeria third worst countries with low access to basic sanitation in rural and urban areas.
Annually, Nov. 19 has been declared by the United Nations General Assembly to create a global awareness about issues of sanitation in the contemporary world and inspire governments, development partners and individuals to take action to tackle the global sanitation crisis.
The theme of this year’s celebration is: “When Nature Calls”. This campaign is based on the narrative that when nature calls, one needs a toilet. Unfortunately, billions of people do not have access to one.
NAN
