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Samuel Bello, Abuja
Over 116 million Nigerians live without a decent toilet and 37.8 million defecate in the open space, Acting Country Director of WaterAid Nigeria, Evelyn Mere, has said.
Speaking at the launch of Keep Your Promises Campaign in Abuja, she said poor access to these basic lifesaving services has done serious damages on education, health, nutrition and poverty amongst other things.
According to Mere, the crisis in the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector has extended to institutions. She said,”50 percent of all health care facilities lack clean water, 88 percent lack basic sanitation and 57 percent lack hand washing facilities with soap and about 50 percent of all schools in Nigeria do not have basic water and sanitation facilities.”
WaterAid and her partners had implemented a citizens’ engagement project called ‘The Vote4WASH’ campaign which focuses on leveraging on the 2019 general elections to educate and empower citizens to effectively demand for the actualisation of their WASH rights from duty bearers.
While the campaign was a success with 120 signed pledge cards from electoral aspirants, campaign promises were largely unfulfilled, unmet and without clear and convincing plans for actualisation.
The Acting Country Director however called on all elected officials to work towards changing the narrative on water and sanitation services in Nigeria by ensuring increased investment in the WASH sector and focusing on providing both public and institutional WASH facilities.
“Nigerians have a huge role to play in the success of this campaign and in WASH governance in the country. We must hold our government accountable and demand for our rights to water and sanitation. When elected public officials and institutions are held accountable and governance is transparent, it increases the likelihood that these institutions and public officials will deliver on their mandate,” she added.
