Experts have advocated the need for improved access to sanitation and hygiene facilities in order to reduce toilet infections and achieve sustainable lifestyle.
This is even as the World Health Organisation, WHO, revealed that 779 million people around the world lacked access to safely managed sanitation services.
WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti stated this on Saturday in her message to commemorate the 2022, World Toilet Day, WTD, with the theme, “Groundwater and Sanitation – Making the Invisible Visible."
WTD is celebrated annually on November, 19, meant to raise awareness on the importance of toilet to healthy life and hygiene.
Regrettably, about 48 million Nigerians still practice open defecation according to the 2021 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene–National Outcome Routine Mapping, WASH-NORM, III Report.
But Moeti hinted that 208 million people still practice open defecation, adding that safely managed sanitation services would lead to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, 6 target and also essential for the realisation of other SDGs.
Moeti said that between year 2000 and 2020, that the population of Africa increased from 800 million to 1.3 billion, noting that about 290 million people gained access to at least basic sanitation services during that period.
She, however frowned that 779 million people still lacked basic sanitation services.
Moeti also said that access to safely managed sanitation services, combined with safely managed drinking water and good hygiene practices is fundamental to public health.
The director said that WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme report on drinking water and sanitation highlighted that only 29 per cent of healthcare facilities in Africa have basic sanitation services.
She quoted the 2020 Joint Monitoring Programme data as saying that 33 per cent of households in Africa have basic sanitation services, with 21 per cent using safely managed sanitation facilities.
She disclosed that two out of three people lack safely managed sanitation services, adding that in Africa, that about 27 per cent of rural and five per cent of urban populations still practice open defaecation.
To achieve a safe toilet target by 2030, Moeti stated that all the stakeholders involved in water and sanitation business must work on average four times faster.
She explained that the connection between sanitation and groundwater cannot be overlooked, saying that in densely populated urban settings, pit latrines and septic tanks sited close to waterpoints that draw from shallow aquifers create potentially serious health risks.
She said that such has profound impact on public health and environmental integrity.
Moeti said that for women and girls in particular, toilets at home, schools and at work help them fulfil their potential and play their full role in the society, especially during menstruation and pregnancy period.
She stated that safely managed and properly sited sanitation protects humans and groundwater from faecal waste pathogens.
The director said that a safe and sustainable sanitation system begins with a toilet that effectively captures human waste in accessible and dignified setting.
She noted that toilets boost improvements in health, gender equality, education, economics, and the environment.
The Founder of World Toilet Organisation, WTO, Dr Jack Sim called on the federal government to improve access to safe and attractive toilets that would end open defecation practice.
Sim disclosed this during the 2022 World Toilet Summit, holding in Abuja, with the theme, “Sanitation Innovations for Economic Development’.
The summit is organised by the Nigerian government, the Organised Private Sector in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, OPS-WASH and WTO.
He said that the organisation has been working to advocate and break the taboo around toilets by bringing the sanitation crisis to the global media spotlight.
He harped on the need for global movement involving governments, policy makers, UN agencies, international civil societies, and thought leaders to work together in addressing the sanitation crisis.
While commending the efforts of the Nigerian government in hosting the summit, he however called for renewed collaboration.
The Deputy Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, South Africa, Mr David Mahlobo, said that Nigeria and South Africa shared a common history of colonialism and apartheid.
He noted that the UN has a huge responsibility to put the voice of water and sanitation on the global agenda.
Mahlobo stated that issues bordering on water and sanitation cannot be left behind in development, saying that with population growth, many efforts of government had not been felt as many people were excluded.
Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, said that the summit focused on improving collaboration among stakeholders to accelerate access to sustainable sanitation services.
Adamu said that the summit was an opportunity to mobilise investment to the sanitation sub-sector, and create an enabling environment for sanitation service delivery through private sector participation.
He stated that by 2030, countries must have achieved access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, and primarily end open defecation.
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