Nigeria Ranks Number One As World Capital Of Open Defecation– Report

In a report that has raised concern in the public, State Coordinator of National Secretariat of the Society for Water and Sanitation (NEWSAN), Sani Adamu Jauro, said Nigeria has overtaken India as the world’s capital of open defecation.

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.

He said: “In view of the WASH challenges in Nigeria, the government is working to actualize its commitments as seen in the finalization 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.”

Speaking further Jauro said 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.

According to Jauro in view of the above, NEWSAN with the support of the 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.

In this regard, according to Jauro, NEWSAN has trained 3-people from each of the 7-project states for 4-days and the training ended early this month in Abuja.

Subsequently, the Gombe State chapter of NEWSAN also recently organized a one-day intensive step down the training in Gombe to cascade down the knowledge the state representatives acquired during the NEWSAN national secretariat training.

Meanwhile, 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 organizations for finding time to attend the step-down training.

It will be recalled that in May 2019, there were an estimated 28.7% Nigerians that did open defecation on daily basis. That was about 47 million people.