When will open defecation stop?

The report ranked Nigeria among the top five countries in the world with the highest number of people engaging in open defecation, revealing that 34 million Nigerians defecate in the public.Although in April this year, Nigeria joined 44 other developing countries at the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting and committed itself, once […]

The report ranked Nigeria among the top five countries in the world with the highest number of people engaging in open defecation, revealing that 34 million Nigerians defecate in the public.
Although in April this year, Nigeria joined 44 other developing countries at the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting and committed itself, once again, to achieving universal access to water and sanitation and eliminating open defecation nationwide by 2025
Expectedly, the UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson has expressed the need to end the unhealthy practice with the new campaign being championed by the UN to end open defecation.
A recent statement from a Non-Governmental Organisation, Wateraid, which welcomes the UN campaign to end the practice of open defecation, said WHO/UNICEF JMP figures for Nigeria showed that the “number of people with access to improved sanitation facilities has dropped even further from 31%, last year, to just 28% now. This means about 122 million Nigerians do not have access to improved sanitation and a staggering 39 million (23% of the population) practice open defecation.”
Based on these figures, indications are that at present rates of progress, Sub-Saharan Africa overall will not become open defecation-free until 2063.
WaterAid, which is campaigning for everyone, everywhere to have access to safe water and basic sanitation by 2030 said about 748 million people in the world are without safe water, while another 2.5 billion are without adequate sanitation.
It also stated that Nigeria had been losing about N455bn annually due to poor sanitation and bad hygiene and about 54 million Nigerian women and girls did not have safe and adequate sanitation while 17 million of them did not have a toilet at all.
Dr. Michael Ojo, Country Representative of WaterAid Nigeria, said: “It is time for a drastic change to the status quo. It is hard to believe that in this day and age, people must still risk their health and dignity for the lack of a basic toilet. It’s even more difficult for girls and women who risk danger and harassment every time they go in search of a private place to relieve themselves.”
For Abdullahi Doko Usman, an applicant, open defecation is not a civilized way of living because it breeds viruses, bacteria, parasites cysts that can cause diseases like cholera, hepatitis among others.  
He said: “To me it affects women the more because men can be comfortable in doing it anywhere, at anytime.
“As far as man keeps eating, open defecation will continue until the agencies that are responsible start providing the necessary facilities.”
Amaka Igwe, a civil servant, said it is an unfortunate thing to do but the fact that it has been in existence for long, stopping it will not be easy but, the practice could be reduced.
Ojo added that where there is open defecation, pathogens spread quickly, causing diarrhea, cholera, bilharzia (a freshwater worm) and other diseases. Safe water and basic sanitation have to be prioritised to effectively tackle extreme poverty because without basic sanitation, girls are more likely to drop out of school, and adults are less able to care for their families or to work, exacting huge social and economic costs.
In a statement issued by UNICEF Communication Specialist (Media and External Relations) in Nigeria, Mr. Geoffrey Njoku, on the World Toilet Day, the agency said trends in the past five years allowed for cautious optimism that significant progress would be made in decreasing the number of people globally who practice open defecation.
In a bid to address the problem of sanitation and open defecation globally, UNICEF is supporting 50 countries, including Nigeria, to implement community approaches to total sanitation such as Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) aimed at empowering communities to identify their sanitation challenges and take necessary actions to end open defecation.
CLTS is intended to make all communities free of open defecation by focusing on social and behaviourial changes and the use of affordable, appropriate technologies.
It also emphasised on sustainable use of sanitation facilities which depends on the engagement of community members ranging from individual, schools and traditional leaders by using their own capacities to attain their objectives and take a central role in planning and implementing improved sanitation.
The new UN campaign to end open defecation is expected to last till the end of next year, as the UN develops a new set of development goals to replace the original Millennium Development Goals.