The Oyo State Ministry of Environment has enjoined civil society organizations, religious bodies, residents and other stakeholders to cooperate with government to make the state Open Defecation Free (ODF).
The commissioner for environment and natural resources, Mr. Abdulmojeed Mogbonjubola, made the call during a pre-sensitization stakeholder meeting in commemoration of the 2023 World Toilet Day on Tuesday in Ibadan.
The world toilet day is an annual United Nations observance promoted through a worldwide public campaign that encourages action to tackle the global sanitation crisis.
Mogbonjubola was represented at the event by the director of water resources management, Mr. Bankole Okubanjo.
He said the stakeholders meeting was aimed to discuss the plan of activities, initiatives and strategies for the commemoration of the day in order to achieve the desire result of making the state ODF.
He said that the state’s World Toilet Day commemoration slated for Nov. 19 would focus on the theme: “Accelerating Change,” to meet the sanitation target of the state.
Also speaking, the director, sanitation, Oyo state rural water supply and sanitation agency (RUWASSA), Mrs. Titilayo Obayemi, said the state government had launched open defecation free roadmap in July 2022 to ensure the state become ODF by 2028.
Obayemi said statistics had shown that Oyo State came first in open defecation ranking among the states in the Southwest.
She disclosed that the test conducted by RUWASSA in some communities in the state revealed that the water that people drink had been polluted with faces.
Obayemi noted that the situation poses a threat to nature and public health.
She added that the state government in partnership with the United Nations children education fund (UNICEF) had picked Ona-Ara and Egbeda local governments in Oct. 2022 for the pilot phase to achieve ODF state.
Obayemi urged religious bodies, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders to use their platforms to raise campaign against open defecation in the state.
Earlier, the UNICEF water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) specialist, Lagos field office, Mr. Monday Johnson, said most diseases that affect people could be linked to poor or absence of good toilet.
Johnson urged the stakeholders to join the campaign of getting people to construct and use toilet to promote good health, dignity and to save resources that would be wasted on medications during the outbreak of diseases.
The state government had concluded arrangements to commemorate this year’s World Toilet Day on Nov. 20 with lectures and a road walk to markets in the state.
