‘70m Nigerians lack access to clean toilets’

• Lagos To Build More Lavatories In 2018
The Managing Director, Reckitt Benckiser (West Africa), Mr. Rahul Murgai, has disclosed that 70 million Nigerians do not have access to clean toilets, even as he called for partnership between government and private organisations to build more.

Murgai made the call at a World Toilet Day 2017 programme titled, ‘Wastewater’, organised by Reckitt Benckiser, the Lagos State Ministry of Environment, and Save the Children International in Ojodu, Lagos.

He said his company was committed to ensuring that all Nigerians had access to clean toilets, to reduce the number of Nigerians coming down with toilet-related infections.

Regretting that people found it difficult to maintain clean environments, toilets and personal hygiene, Murgai said: “We need to work together to achieve clean toilets. There is also need for creation of awareness for people to keep their toilets and environments clean, as well as maintain personal hygiene.”

Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Samuel Adejare, in his remarks, said the state government was committed to building more public toilets and maintaining existing ones.

“We are going to build more toilets in Lagos starting from January 2018. This would help to prevent infectious diseases outbreak in Lagos and Nigeria,” he said.