Over 880,000 persons have stopped defecating in the open and now use a safe and hygienic toilet facility, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said.
Speaking in Gombe, yesterday, at the close of a pro-water project, the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Specialist, UNICEF Nigeria, Jonathan Ekhator, noted that the project reached 997,000 people in the target local councils and they were provided with safe drinking water.
He said: “A total of 500 new water facilities were constructed and 1,000 faulty facilities were rehabilitated. Fifty-four schools and 38 healthcare facilities were provided with basic water, sanitation and hygiene.
“Three local local councils (Biu, Guyuk and Jada) were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) by NTGS. As a result of the above achievements, the programme contributed to improved health, nutrition and wellbeing of poor and vulnerable people in targeted rural communities, especially among women.”
On behalf of the communities, Emir of Jajere, Hamza Buba, applauded UNICEF for its huge contributions in WASH and other sectors.
“We are aware that this problem of water scarcity is there and it is affecting our people.
“We have many other communities experiencing water crises. We, hereby, plead with UNICEF and other partners to help us extend this project to other areas. This will help us. I congratulate UNICEF and other participants on this laudable achievement,” he said.
According to a World Bank report in 2021, over 60 million Nigerians lack access to basic drinking water, 80 million without improved sanitation facilities, while 167 million could not access basic handwashing facilities.
The acute scarcity of water has brought many rural dwellers down to an avoidable sickness, while many people lost their lives to water-borne diseases due lack of clean water, sanitation and hygiene.
UNICEF, in 2022, said 117,000 children die in Nigeria each year due to water-related illnesses, the highest number of any nation.
In the last five years, UNICEF, with the support of The Netherlands and the Federal Government, had selected two local councils each in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.
UNICEF, through the Netherland Directorate-General for International Cooperation-Accelerated Sanitation and Water for All Programme II (DGIS-ASWA II), in 2019, engaged in provision WASH projects to reduce the negative effect of lack of water.
