WORLD TOILET DAY: 39 MILLION PEOPLE IN NIGERIA PRACTICE OPEN DEFECATION.

Nigeria accounts for about 39 million of the 2.4 billion people in the world
practicing open defecation, Chief Operating Officer, Green World Matters
Ltd, Hajiya Ladi Rekiya Faruk, has said. Hajiya Faruk gave the figure in a
welcome address delivered at a seminar to commemorate this year’s World
Toilet Day in Kaduna.
She noted that children drink water that is mixed with faeces dumped
indiscriminately in rivers and other sources of drinking water, and called for
an end to the practice.
“Every day, children drink water that is mixed with faeces which is dumped
indiscriminately in rivers and other sources of drinking water.
“This phenomenon causes a child to die every 2.5 minutes from diarrhea
which has become the third biggest killer of children under five years old
and from cholera, dysentery and other water borne diseases especially in
the developing world.
“It is estimated that 1 in 3 of the world’s population has been said not to
have access to safe, clean, private toilets while about 2.4 billion people still
defecate in the open.
“Incidences have been recorded of women being raped as they make to find
dark, hidden, isolated and convenient places to ease themselves while girls
have left schools for being unable to clean themselves adequately during
their menstrual cycles.
“In the course of our clean-up exercise, we realized that some of the
drainages and gutters around the metropolis have been converted to toilets.
This discovery lends credence to the high rate of recurring and seemingly
untreatable ailments amongst residents and the need for the provision of
public conveniences.
“Sanitation, which is the safe separation of faeces and refuse from human
contact and the environment, ensures that people are protected from the
spread of preventable diseases such as soil transmitted helminthiasis,
diarrhea, chronic malnutrition in children and cholera.
“This problem cannot be left to government, the private sector or to NGOs –
we must all work together to create a synergy that will put sanitation issues
at the top of our development agenda.
“Ending the practice of open defecation can help reduce hospital visits,
child mortality, rape and others,” she said.