EXCITING NEWS: TNG WhatsApp Channel is LIVE…
Subscribe for FREE to get LIVE NEWS UPDATE. Click here to subscribe!
By Gabriel Okoro, Abuja
As Nigeria joins the world to commemorate the 2018 World Toilet Day, 4.5 Billion people in the world live without safe toilet and 892 million people still practice open defecation, as many people still use the bush and water bodies as their regular means of excreta disposal says the United Nations.
This disclosure was made on Tuesday in Abuja during a ministerial press briefing by Ministry of Environment ahead of November the 19th, a day set aside by the United Nations General Assembly in 2013 for it celebration.
Nigeria’s Minister of State Environment, Ibrahim Jibrin says the federal government is committed to addressing open defecation in the country and ensuring proper management of excreta.
Jibrin who was represented by the permanent secretary of ministry of Environment, Leon Aliboh noted that one of the major consequences of poor excreta disposal is the high rate of diarrhea disease which is the second cause of high rates of morbidity and mortality amongst children under the age of five.
“The persistence re-occurence of annual incidences of Cholera outbreak in some of our States and the occurrence and re-occurence of other excreta related diseases are also manifestations of inadequate toilet facilities. Yet this could also be prevented through safe excreta disposal by every individual”, he said.
The ministry revealed further that it is in collaboration with critical stakeholders in reviewing the National Environmental Sanitation Policy.
The theme for this year’s World Toilet Day is”When Nature Calls”. Its focus is raising awareness and inspiring action to tackle global sanitation crisis, promoting access to toilets for everyone and everywhere amongst others.