Stakeholders in the environment space and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) have expressed mixed reactions on the feasibility of Nigeria achieving an open defecation-free target by 2030 with over 48 million Nigerians still practising open defecation.
They disclosed this in separate interviews on Sunday in Lagos.
2025 was initially set out to end open defecation in Nigeria, but the Federal Government shifted the date to 2030 to ensure that all stakeholders work for its actualisation.
The 2021 WASH NORM statistics indicated that about 48 million people still resort to open defecation.
Some argued that the date was not realisable, while others expressed optimism that all hands must be on deck to make the 2030 deadline possible.
A lawyer and development consultant, Ayo Adebusoye said the 2030 date was not realisable.
Adebusoye, who is also the Chairman, Lagos Civil Society Participation for Development, said there was no evidence on the ground to show that an end to open defecation would happen in 2030.
“You have to be intentional, whenever you have commitments like this, you have to make obvious moves. It is not just to say it.
“In Lagos State, for instance, what we are facing is a whole lot, especially since the Lagos Waste Management Authority was destabilised during the Ambode regime. In so many places, we see refuse being dumped on the streets.
“We see all manner of people everywhere urinating or defecting on the streets,” Adebusoye said.
He said government needed to be intentional, adding that there must be people monitoring the streets.
He noted there was a need for more public toilets placed in strategic places like motor parks.
“Government at all levels have to become serious and the local government areas have a role to play — this is one of the main constitutional duties of the local government.
“Right now, we are not on track,” Adebusoye said.
According to him, there should be adequate enforcement to ensure that street by street, open defecation is phased out.
He said that petrol stations should be engaged to ensure that they have decent public toilets for people as obtained in other climes.
For Cecilia Imadu, a WASH expert with Save the Children, a non-governmental organisation, the fight to end open defecation had been ongoing.
According to her, development partners have been in the vanguard of ensuring that Nigerians adopt best hygiene practices to end open defecation.
She noted that open defecation had been a major channel for the spread of diseases.
She, however, said there were gaps in the aspects of ownership and sustainability in the struggle from the part of government and citizens.
Imadu who noted that the Federal Government had passed policies to end open defecation such as the Clean Nigeria Campaign said but there were still gaps in infrastructure and behavioural change.
She identified lack of maintenance of WASH facilities and scaling up on the drive to end open defecation as gaps to tackle
“If the government is more commitment toward this, I think we will get there by 2030.
“Save the Children had supported Somolu Local Government Area (LGA) in Lagos State to end open defecation, where some infrastructures were put in place and they were handed over to the community under the stop diarrhea campaign some years back.
“But we cannot say for sure how well these infrastructure are being put to use and the level of maintenance.
“This is because when development partners intervene, they hand over to the community and by extension to the government to take it up from there.
“So, we are still lacking in the aspect of ownership and sustainability.
“If the government can do more in that regards, there is no doubt that the 2030 deadline is achievable,” Imadu said.
An environmental officer, Ojodu Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Ms Titilayo Ogedengbe acknowledged that incidences of open defecation adorn the Berger Bus Stop area of the LCDA on the Lagos Ibadan expressway.
Ogedengbe said the Lagos State Government in 2024 embarked on series of campaign and have put in measures to end open defecation within the Berger corridor.
According to her, the government through the park unions have engaged people to police the Berger area to stop the indiscriminate defecation in the area.
Ogedengbe expressed optimism that the 2030 date for the eradication of open defecation was realisable.
She said the state government had ensured the provision of adequate toilet facilities, especially in the Berger area, to ensure that people do not defecate in the open.
She added that development partners, like WaterAid Nigeria, have been intervening in the LCDA to instill behavioural change among the residents.
“By 2030, there will not be open defecation within the Berger axis because of the measures already put in place by the Lagos State government,” Ogedengbe said.
For the Community Development Commitee Chairman, Ojodu LCDA, Segun Feyemi the 2030 deadline is realisable, given the indices on ground.
Feyemi said that Ojodu LCDA had been working with WaterAid to end open defecation.
The CDC Chairman, Ikorodu North LCDA, Adeniran Ogunbanwo said the 2030 deadline feasible.
Ogunbanwo said that all the stakeholders should work in unison, adding that with robust campaign citizens should be sensitised on the dangers of open defecation.
“Ikorodu North LCDA is doing its best to put structures on the ground to combat open defecation within the confinement of available resources.
“But the resources is not enough, we still need partnership like what we are having with WaterAid to do more.
“We still need more intervention with other agencies,” he said.
He said that the environmental health officials in Ikorodu North were doing their best to sensitise the residents on the dangers of open defecation and the need for residents to make use of their toilet facilities.
He, however, noted that they were short staffed.
The Commissioner for Environment, Ogun state, Mr Ola Oresanya said the causes of open defecation must be addressed to achieve the target.
“If we want to end open defecation, we need to look at what causes it, why are people defecating openly.
“Some of the reasons include lack of toilets, people have bad habits of not looking for the nearest facility when the call of nature comes.
“And because they have no shame, they enjoy themselves doing it openly,” he said.
Oresanya noted that in the area of Infrastructure, there are many houses, especially in the villages, that don’t have toilets.
According to him, there were also lack of adequate public toilets.
He noted that some other places that could be used like shopping malls and fueling stations and eateries are locked up.
“We need to get a law to reprimand such facilities for not making their toilets available.
“For those indulging in such bad habits- defecating openly, there must be enforcement and heavy fines to deter them.
He noted that Ikenne LGA in Ogun state had been declared open defecation free.
He said that the state was looking at an additional five LGAs to be declared open defecation free by 2025.
“It means all houses within the LGA has public toilet facilities with running water. and there is regular inspection.
He said that Ogun state planned to have 400 public toilets, adding that one unique thing about the public toilets in Ogun state is that they are also sources of energy.
“They produce electricity from the feces. It us green energy, and it is a PPP arrangement, whereby we allow the sector to use their money to build it and we help them to recover their funds through serious enforcement.
“We also want to implement the law that if you get to a petrol station in Ogun state and they don’t allow you to use their public toilet, the station could lose their operating licence.
“We can seal them up because they have reneged on their agreement,” Oresanya said.
NAN
