In an effort to put an end to open defecation across Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered federal institutions to build sanitation facilities; such as public toilets in strategic locations.
He also urged the state level to embark on the same project; urging that they should encourage various households to provide their own sanitation facilities.
Buhari spoke on this in Abuja on Tuesday at the inauguration of the ‘Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet Campaign.’
Represented by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, the President stated that the Federal Government maintained commitment to putting an end to open defecation.
According to him, a World Bank report on the estimation of Nigeria loss of N455bn annually; having open defecation accounting for one third of this amount; as a result of the use of unhygienic or shared toilets and open defecation.
Buhari said, “These costs include healthcare, loss of productivity, premature deaths; and poor educational outcomes.”
He noted that some of the dreadful costs of open defecation were those that could not be quantified in monetary terms.
According to him, they include the social costs; loss of dignity; lack of privacy and increased vulnerability to physical attacks.
The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, on his part; said about 47 million Nigerians still engage in open defecation due to lack of toilets and space to use for defecation.
In the same vein, the Senate directed relevant Federal Government’s agencies; to increase the number of public toilets in all the 36 states of the federation.
-Oyin Princess