The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has said that Nigeria is losing N455 billion annually to poor sanitation and open defecation.
The Chief of Water Sanitation and Health (WASH) United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), Mr. Zaid Jurji said this at a two-day media dialogue on Water Sanitation and hygiene (WASH) organised by the Child Rights Bureau, Federal Ministry of Information in collaboration with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in Port Harcourt.
Jurji: who spoke on a “Sustainability of WASH Programme and Ending Open Defecation in Nigeria” also said that, 122,000 Nigerians including 87,000 children under the age of five also die each year due to poor sanitation.
He listed the cost of open defecation and poor sanitation to include increased death rate as a result of the prevalence of cholera, dysentery and malnutrition.
Other causes according to him, are, reduction in school attendance, loss of dignity, privacy and security as well as stunted growth especially in children.
The WASH specialist further blamed the low awareness on the dangers of open defecation in the country on weak institutions, low political commitment and low private sector participations including non-governmental organisations community-based organisations (CBOs) and lack of appropriate technology.
He also said that for Nigeria to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of improving sanitation and ending open defecation by 2025, more funds must be injected to raise the level of awareness.
Meanwhile, a WASH specialist in UNICEF, Mr. Michael Forson, has blamed the challenge of poor sanitation in the Niger Delta on poor sector coordination.
Forson who spoke on the overview of the EU/UNICEF Niger Delta Support Programme at the event also blamed the situation on weak and nonexistence of monitoring and evaluation system, weak institutions, poor capacity building and inadequate provision for Local Governemnt Areas WASH departments.
He said that the intervention of the organisations through the Niger Delta Support Programme was to mitigate conflicts and address causes of unrest and violence in the region.
Forson stressed the need for WASH departments to be upgraded to full departments in the local government area amongst others.
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