By Rita Michael,
Bauchi
The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Hussein Adamu, has disclosed that over 46 million people practice open defecation.
He stated this on Monday during the official celebration of local government wide open defecation free status by Dass Local Government Area under the Sanitation, Hygiene and Water in Nigeria (SHAWN) project held at the Waziri Mazadu Primary School at Dass Local Government Area in Bauchi State.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Musa Ibrahim, the minister said that more than two third of the Nigeria population were without access to basic sanitation facilities and efforts in time past to address the challenge yielded minimal results.
He commended UNICEF and DFID for supporting the implementation of the SHAWN project in Nigeria, which he noted has been implemented in 70 local government areas of the six states of Bauchi, Benue, Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna and Jigawa, adding that the project has been extended to 100 LGAs in eight states with addition of Kano and Yobe states in 2017.
“It is therefore worthy to note that Dass local government is the first among the implementing LGAs in the state and the second local government in the country to achieve this notable feat”
“A glimpse of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene WASH sector in Nigeria through WASH diagnostic report by the world bank in 2017 shows that while the country made significant progress in the provision of safe water supply in the past decade which contributed to socio-economic development and poverty reduction in the country, the same cannot be said of sanitation and hygiene,” he said.
