{"id":74090,"date":"2025-08-25T06:35:49","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T06:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=74090"},"modified":"2025-08-25T06:35:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T06:35:49","slug":"open-defecation-48m-nigerians-still-without-toilets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/08\/25\/open-defecation-48m-nigerians-still-without-toilets\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Defecation: 48m Nigerians Still Without Toilets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Olokuta Rofiat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Despite years of government campaigns and international support, more than 48 million Nigerians still practice open defecation, exposing communities to waterborne diseases and threatening the country\u2019s 2030 open-defecation-free (ODF), target.<\/p>\n<p>The WASHNORM report identifies open defecation as a major driver of cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid, and neglected tropical diseases, particularly during the rainy season when floods wash human waste into water sources.<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria had initially set a 2025 deadline, backed by Executive Order 009 in 2019, but delays in funding and weak implementation shifted the target to 2030.<\/p>\n<p>Experts now warn that the country risks missing this new deadline unless urgent action is taken.<\/p>\n<p>Between 2021 and 2023, just \u20a616 million was allocated to the fight-far below what is required for toilet construction, enforcement, and community mobilization.<\/p>\n<p>Environmental health officers remain poorly resourced, while penalties for public defecation are rarely enforced.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, some progress exists. Jigawa State has become the first in Nigeria to achieve 100% ODF status, credited to strong political will and UNICEF partnership.<\/p>\n<p>Lagos State plans to build 100 new public toilets and refurbish existing ones, while private firms like Reckitt (makers of Harpic) report refurbishing 150 public toilets and reaching over 4 million Nigerians with hygiene education.<\/p>\n<p>In September 2024, the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, with UNICEF support, launched the Clean Nigeria Campaign Strategic Plan to guide efforts toward 2030.<\/p>\n<p>The plan urges states, local governments, NGOs, and the private sector to scale up investments and grassroots awareness.<\/p>\n<p>Sanitation experts stress that beyond policies, achieving an ODF Nigeria will require sustained funding, strict enforcement, and community ownership of hygiene practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Olokuta Rofiat Despite years of government campaigns and international support, more than 48 million Nigerians still practice open defecation, exposing communities to waterborne diseases and threatening the country\u2019s 2030 open-defecation-free (ODF), target. The WASHNORM report identifies open defecation as a major driver of cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid, and neglected tropical diseases, particularly during the rainy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":74091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-74090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74092,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74090\/revisions\/74092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}