Only 3 of all 774 LGAs free of open defecation

Obanliku and Yakur Local governments in Cross Rivers State as well as Dass Local government in Bauchi  State are the only ones certified free of open defecation among all 774 council areas in Nigeria, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund  (UNICEF).

It also says one in  four Nigerians lack access to basic toilet.

At a media dialogue on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Port Harcourt on Monday, UNICEF Chief of WASH, Zaid Jurji said there is a huge challenge in water and sanitation in Nigeria because only 20.4% of the population have access to basic water and sanitation services.

Jurji said about 47 million Nigerians still practise   open defecation—human faeces disposal in the open fields, forests, bushes and water—while an estimated 39 million of the nation’s population still have unimproved sanitation.

“There is still unimproved latrines—no hygienic separation of human faeces from human contact,” said Jurji, adding that most Nigerians  do not know the implications of open defecation to their health.

Nigeria is also cited to have the second largest number of people who defecates in the open globally and largest in Africa in the last 15 years. India ranks topmost.