The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has disclosed how Nigeria can end open defecation.
According to UNICEF, Nigeria needed to build over three million (3.9m) toilets annually to eliminate open defecation by 2025.
UNICEF’s Head of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Jane Bevan spoke on Monday while opening the first two-day toilet business owners’ conference in Abuja.
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The country currently builds between one hundred and eighty thousand (180,000) to two hundred thousand (200,000) toilets a year, which Bevan held was not enough.
She believed that there should be a different way of creating demand for toilets, adding that the private sector can play a major role in sustainable development and strengthening the sanitation market in the country.
Citing the WASH National Sanitation Plans Roadmap in Nigeria to 2021, Bevan explained forty-eight million people defecate in the open while ninety-five million lacked access to basic sanitation services.
She said:
“About 1.3 per cent of GDP or N455 billion is lost annually due to poor access to sanitation – health, health care savings and productivity.
“Every dollar invested in water and sanitation results in economic benefits ranging from $3 to $34.’’
Dee Dee Walson-Jack, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, also speaking at the event, expressed optimism that toilet business owners will cooperate with government efforts to curb open defecation in Nigeria.
