World Environment Day 2020: Nigeria’s Quest to end Open Defecation by 2025

As the world marks the 2020 World Environment Day with the theme: ‘Time for Nature’, South-West Bureau Chief of Kristina Reports, Kenneth Afor takes a close look at Nigeria’s commitment to tackling Open Defecation in the country.

It is alarming to note that the country, the giant of Africa, as it is popularly known, has about 46 million of its populace practising open defecation on a daily basis and it is ranked second in the world among other countries with India topping the chart.

About a year ago, the executive arm of the federal government woke up to its responsibility to address this awful image painted by none other but those people who defecate on a regular basis in an open space which knowingly or unknowingly is causing a great danger to human health.

In November 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari, during one of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings, signed Executive Order 009 titled: ‘The Open Defecation-Free Nigeria by 2025 and other Related Matters Order’.

The Order seeks to tackle and end open defecation by 2025 which will be achieved by ensuring that all public places including schools, hospitals and offices, fuel stations, places of worship and  market places have unrestricted access to toilets and latrines within their premises and other components in the order.

The big question is how effective has the order been activated across the country? Although, there might have been a significant level of cooperation from respective authorities in the country especially in urban and suburban areas, how have these authorities extended it to the bottom of the ladder – the rural areas?

The country’s Ministry of Water Resources might have done quite well in ensuring there is access to water through its Community Based Water Quality Surveillance.

However, for the country to begin the journey of achieving open defecation-free by 2025 there is need for the ministry, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders in the country and development partners, to commence aggressive construction of sanitary infrastructure in every spot where people converge for public use. With this, it minimizes the rate of wanting to defecate in an open space.

In 2018, during the administration of Akinwumi Ambode in Lagos State, the former Commissioner for Environment, Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti pledged that the state government will implement the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) policy which will complement extant laws in curbing the menace of open defecation and urination in the State.

Two years down the line, not much in terms of putting in place basic sanitary infrastructures have been achieved as there are still increasing number of open defecations in the state, raising concerns that this may hinder the country’s projection in achieving open defecation-free by 2025.

This year’s United Nations World Environment Day theme “Time for Nature” is a clarion call for world leaders to take decisive steps in enacting and implementing policies in their various capacities that would see to the realization of providing the basic infrastructure that supports life on earth and human development.

Relevant agencies and development partners should ensure that all hands must be on deck for an aggressive public awareness on the importance of taking care of nature and not damaging it.