State coordinator of National Secretariat of the Society for Water and Sanitation (NEWSAN), Sani Adamu Jauro, Thursday said Nigeria has overtaken India as the world’s capital of open defecation.
Jauro stated this while presenting a paper during one-day intensive step down training for members of the NEWSAN in Gombe on WASH Rapid Assessment and Advocacy in the state.
Jauro said open defecation practice is now common across the country and as a result, Nigeria now ranks number one, whereas in 2019 it ranked second behind India in countries practicing open defecation.
WASH-NORM said that May 2019 estimated 28.7% Nigerians did this on daily basis. That is 47 million people.
“In view of the WASH challenges in Nigeria, the government is working to actualise its commitments as seen in the finalisation of the roadmap for Open Defecation Free (ODF) policies at the national level.
“The introduction of Partnership for Expanded Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (PRE WASH), declaration of a state of emergency in the WASH sector and launch of clean Nigeria campaign,” he said.
He stated further that after the launch of the clean Nigeria campaign, President Mohammed Buhari has signed an executive order against Open Defecation (the executive order 009).
“Therefore, it is expected that all stakeholders would collaborate to address the WASH sector challenges in the country,” he said.
Jauro stated that in view of the above, NEWSAN with support of Water Supply, Sanitation and Collaborative Council (WSSCC), is to carry out WASH Rapid Assessment to identify the gaps in the state WASH sector.
They are also to conduct advocacy on the same in each of the 7-states identified for the project, Gombe state inclusive.
Consequently, NEWSAN has trained 3-people from each of the 7-project state for 4-days and the training ended early this month in Abuja.
Subsequently, the Gombe state chapter of NEWSAN also recently organised a one-day intensive step down training in Gombe to cascade down the knowledge the state representatives acquired during the NEWSAN national secretariat training.
The NEWSAN Gombe state coordinator, Sani Adamu Jauro, while declaring the training session open, appreciated NEWSAN national secretariat and WSSCC for selecting Gombe in the whole of North-east geo-political zone of the country. He thanked all the members and organisations for finding time to attend the step-down training.
