Janet Ogundepo With over 48 million Nigerians still practising open defecation and a nationwide shortage of toilets, some public health physicians doubt the country’s ability to achieve open defecation-free status by 2030. In exclusive interviews with PUNCH Healthwise, the experts noted that with a quarter of Nigerians still practising open defecation and many public toilets being unaffordable and unavailable, the goal was unlikely to be met. To ensure that the country meets the target, the physicians emphasised the need for a return of sanitary officers, also known as Wole Wole, who would ensure that every household had the required number of toilets as well as make public toilets clean and affordable for users.
Open defecation has been a major concern in Nigeria for the past 25 years. As a result, Nigeria was ranked second amongst the nations with the highest number of people practising open defecation. To ensure Nigeria became ODF, in 2016, the Federal Government and the United Nations Children’s Fund developed a national roadmap to “Making Nigeria Open Defecation free by 2025,” which was endorsed by the National Council on Water Resources.
Also, in 2018, FG declared a state of emergency on the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene sector, popularly known as WASH and launched the nationwide Clean Nigeria: Use The Toilet campaign to achieve the ODF nation in 2025. However, two weeks ago, the Federal Government admitted that its initial set target to make the country open-de.