By Joyce Remi- Babayeju
Following Federal Government’s declaration of State of Emergency on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene WASH, sector and launch of the National Action Plan on Water sector, WaterAid has promised to build 50 million affordable toilets for Nigerians.
WaterAid Nigeria Country Director, Dr Chichi Aniagolu- Okoye disclosed this to Nigerian Pilot at the Villa during the launch of National Action Plan on Water by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
Aniagolu- Okoye lamented that WASH situation in Nigeria is catastrophic because only 24% of Nigerians have access to toilets and over 100 million Nigerians practice open defecation, OD.
This she said would be driven by the private sector.
We are working to get toilets into homes of Nigerians , this is a huge project and we are doing it through the private sector, “this is to make sure that 50 million people out of the 100 million have affordable toilets.
President Muhammadu Buhari declared a State of Emergency on Water Sanitation in Nigeria largely because of prevalence of water- borne diseases and deaths in the country.
Buhari had said,” our country now ranks number 2 in global rating on Open Defection, OD as about 25% of our population are practicing OD.
The President further lamented that WASH services at rural areas are unsustainable as 46% of all water schemes are non functional, and the share of Nigeria’s spending on WASH sector has been declining from 0.7% of the GDP in 1990 to about 0.27% in 2015 which is far below the 0.70%, at the West African regional level.
DailyBreak reports that the WASH Action Plan comprises governance, sanitation, funding and financing, monitoring and evaluation.
