28.7% of Nigerians Engage in Open Defecation- Survey
…As NBS, UNICEF Others to Conduct 2018 WASH–NORM Survey
Latest reports indicate that about 28.7 percent of Nigerians engage in open defecation and there was urgent need to check the trend as the development poses serious risk to public health.
It is in the light of this development that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and UNICEF will conduct WASH – NORM Survey in Nigeria to collect latest information on improved Water access, the percentage of Nigerians who are involved in open defecation, and general sanitation practices, a statement from NBS and made available to Economic Confidential has said.
WASH is an acronym for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene while NORM is National Outcome Routine Mapping.
This survey will provide further context on previously published data on water access, sanitation, and open defecation. In 2013, the NDHS Report showed that 34% and 59.6% of Nigeria’s population had access to improved sanitation and improved water sources respectively. Additionally, 28.7% of Nigerians still engage in open defecation.
These incidences pose a significant risk to public health and wellbeing, and more information is needed to gain further insight into this challenge to develop appropriate and better-informed solutions
In the light of the above, the WASH–NORM Survey is being conducted to provide quality data to the Nigerian Government to enable evidence-based decision making as well as the efficient application of resources towards the improvement of access to WASH Services in Nigeria.
The Survey will cover all the 36 States of the federation, including the FCT. Forty (40) enumeration areas will be selected for study in each of the States and FCT, except Lagos and Kano where 40 enumeration areas will be selected based on each of the senatorial zones. NBS enumerators will be in the field to collect data from respondents for sixteen (16) days beginning from 26th April 2018. NBS kindly appeals to respondents to give our enumerators the required information for a successful conduct of the survey.
Economic Confidential recalls that the Chief, Water and Sanitation Section, United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, Nigeria, Zaid Jurji, had in 2017 said Nigeria can no longer withstand open defecation’s practice because of its effects on people’s health. Jurji stated this when he led a delegation of UNICEF on a visit to Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State at the Muhammadu Buhari Government House in Katsina. The UNICEF chief pointed out that Nigeria ranked third in the world in open defecation. Reacting, Governor Masari said his government has constructed six compartments of VIP latrines in 110 primary schools, renovated 335 primary schools in 20 councils and also provided 118 facilities in various schools through SUBEB. Earlier, the UNICEF Chief of Katsina Field Office, Padmavathi Yedla, said in India, it adopted the pay-and-use latrine system. He called for a similar arrangement in the state to check issues of open defecation.
