FG Needs to Engage 50% of Nigerians Practising Open Defecation
Stakeholders in Nigeria’s energy sector have validated a draft report of consultants designed to remove barriers/risks affecting the broadening of renewable energy investment in the country. The overall objective of the project is to assist the Federal Government in achieving a transformation in the electricity mix such that at least 20GW of Nigeria’s electricity is generated from solar PV by 2030. Bennett Oghifo reports
Nigeria and India have common detonators like huge population and large expanse of land, which naturally come with some challenges, particularly in the sector of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
When in 2019, India declared itself open defecation free, it was with a deep sense of pride because it was seen as victory for everybody that heeded the call by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to shun the shameful act of defecating in the open not only because of its health hazard, but also because of insecurity issues, particularly for women and girls who become rape victims.
Nigeria is still saddled with this burden of open defecation, in spite of the fact that in 2018, the federal government declared a state of emergency in the WASH sector.
Reports say not less than 47 million people still defecate in the open and that 100,000 children under the age of five years die annually on account of unsafe water supply and sanitation in the country. This is in addition to the nation’s loss of about N455 billion yearly because of unimproved sanitation.
According to a report, ‘Nigeria: Improving the State of Sanitation’, published in 2019 by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a public interest research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, the poor are the worst sufferers.
The report says “Undigested faecal sludge emptied from pit and septic tanks is mostly buried or dumped, and wastewater flows through villages freely, contaminating soil and groundwater.”
CSE, which researches into, lobbies for and communicates the urgency of development that is both sustainable and equitable, said “In spite of Nigeria’s progress in sanitation, it needs to work on safe containment, emptying, transportation, treatment, and disposal or reuse of faecal sludge and wastewater.”
They recommended that, ultimately, the federal government should frame effective guidelines and bylaws aligned to the problem.
The situation According to the CSE report, “Nigeria, with a population of 191 million, was ranked with the second-highest number of open defecators after India in the world till 2 October 2019, when India declared itself open-defecation free.”
The report says 50 per cent of Nigeria’s population is poor, and that the government is now fighting to pull the country out of poverty and poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conditions.
“With the aim of achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 of ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation and hygiene for all, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources (FMoWR) and National Bureau of Statistics of Nigeria, along with a few international organisations—which collected data on WASH from the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria and its 36 states— published the WASH National Outcome Routine Mapping (WASH-NORM) Survey report in 2018 to generate data for decision makers.
The report says that only one-third of the country has access to basic WASH services and that the poorest are ten times more likely to lack basic WASH services than the richest population across all the six geopolitical zones of the country (the 36 states and the FCT are divided into six geopolitical zones).
“Almost 67 per cent of Nigeria’s households live in rural areas, and research data from several studies indicate that basic water and sanitation services are very poor in its rural areas.”