WorldToilet Day: GroupTakes ‘Toilet 4 All’ Campaign to Abuja Park

Worried by the shameful fact that Nigerians have now nationalised open defecation , the National Task Group on Sanitation has taken Cleanup and Toilet4All Campaign to Jabi Park, Abuja.

The event, organised by the Ministry of Water Resources, and the National Task Group on Sanitation, themed, ‘Wastewater’ was aimed at sensitising drivers on the need to wash their hands after using toilet, and how to maintain toilet facilities.

Deputy Director, Water Control , Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mrs. Elisabeth Ugo, urged the drivers to shun open defecation to prevent communicable diseases like diarrhea, cholera, typhoid and dysentery.

She said 67 per cent of Nigerians lack access to toilet, but noted that the federal government has laid out a plan that by 2025, no Nigerian will be using open toilet.

The representative of Water Aid, Ms. Oluseyi Abdulmalik said with seven out of 10 Nigerians not having access to toilet makes the issue a dire one, adding that sanitation was the job of everyone which should not be left alone for government to do.

The Director, Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Al haji Jubril Shaba, said the council would provide more toilets in the park, warning that anybody caught defecating outside would be dealt with in accordance to the law.

Shaba said thatFCT authority would no longer tolerate open defecation and uncleanliness in and around the park, while stressing that before the law is enforced the Council would do the right thing so that there will be no excuse.

Responding, NURTW FCT Secretary, Mr. Olugbade Olagunju , said the faulty sanitation of the park was not the fault of the union. “The situation we found ourselves is not our making. We don’t look like people that want to commit suicide.

“We have been having meetings upon meetings that this park should be tarred. At a stage when our complaints were much, the Council promised to give the park to a developer but the developer only developed his pocket.

“The toilets we have here is over loaded. The only person that did well for us was former Minister of Water Resources, Sarah Ochekpe who provided water in the park,” he said.