By Esenvosa Izah
Lagos – An NGO, Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA), says it will extend its Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) campaign to include ‘a toilet for all’ to end open defecation in Nigeria.
Its Founder, Mrs Toyin Saraki, made the assertion on Friday in Lagos.
Saraki said that the campaign to end open defecation in Nigeria was in line with the priorities of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“I am delighted to announce today that the Wellbeing Foundation will extend its WASH campaign to include, not only WASH in schools and hygiene in healthcare facilities, but also ‘a toilet for all’ to end open defecation in Nigeria.
“Nigeria has the second highest rate of open defecation in the world; this increases the risk of the spread of infectious diarrhea disease such as cholera.
“In addition to campaigning for improved access to clean and safe toilet facilities, the Wellbeing Foundation will work toward improving the general understanding of the dangers of open defecation, “ she said.
Saraki said that the foundation had in May 2018 launched a WASH campaign because of the country’s poor WASH indices.
According to her, the indices are worsening in many instances.
“In September 2018, the WBFA partnered with Unilever Lifebuoy Nigeria and Sightsavers to improve hygiene practices to impact more than two million children over the following 12 months.
“The partnership works on programmes which promote hygiene messages and prevent disease, advancing critical hygiene interventions such as handwashing with soap, addressing the issue of child illnesses and mortality due to preventable diseases.
“WASH indices are often, rightly, discussed as statistical values; that is of course crucial to any national plan, and the WBFA staunchly advocates for improved civil registration and vital statistics systems.
“We know that one out of three Nigerians does not have clean water close to home and two in three do not have a decent household toilet.
“This contributes to the deaths of nearly 60,000 children under five each year of diarrhoea illnesses caused by dirty water, poor sanitation and poor hygiene.
“Poor WASH conditions kill more people annually in Nigeria than have died in conflict with Boko Haram.
According to WaterAid, an NGO, it also means a loss of 0.9 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product, around 3.38 billion dollars a year, “ Saraki said.