United Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has said that the tall objective of achieving open defecation free globally by the year 2025 still remains a mirage in Nigeria as only 71 local governments out of the 774 local governments have been designated open defecation free.
The organisation lamented that to see Nigeria out of the quagmire, over one million toilets or latrines ought to be built every year in the country to meet the targeted free open defecation by the year, 2025.
The chief, UNICEF Field Office, Enugu, Dr. Ibrahim Conteh, who stated this at a one-day media dialogue organised by UNICEF in conjunction with the Briadcasting Corporation of Abia state, BCA, in commemoration of 2021 World Toilet Day, with a theme: Value Toilet, said however that Nigeria has been making significant progress to ensure that the nation assumes the open defecation free status.
Conteh, represented by Maureen Zubby Okolo, said, “Nigeria is making some progress in improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene services to its population, with 75 per cent of Nigerians having access to basic drinking water services – up from 70 percent in 2019.
“Access to sanitation (toilet and hand washing facilities) has also increased modestly, from 44 per cent to 46 cent over the same period.”
He however said that more efforts are being made to see that the objective is achieved.
