By YANGE IKYAA

The federal fovernment, through the federal ministry of water resources, has inaugurated a 30-man planning committee for the forthcoming World Toilet Day Summit coming up in Abuja by November this year.

Inaugurating the committee on Thursday in his conference room, the minister of water resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu, said Nigeria was selected in February as the host country of the 2022 World Toilet Summit.

According to Adamu, the selection of Nigeria to host the World Toilet Summit was facilitated by the Organized Private Sector in WASH (OPS-WASH) in view of Nigeria’s stride towards eliminating open defecation practices in the country, through the implementation of a national campaign to end open defecation in the country by 2025, tagged “Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet’ Campaign.”

He said the Nigerian government has consistently demonstrated commitment to the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector through the various initiatives being implemented in the sector, which include the presidential declaration of “State of Emergency” in the sector, the National Action Plan to revitalize the sector, the Partnership for Expanded WASH (PEWASH), the Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet Campaign, and the Sustainable Urban and Rural WASH project (SURWASH), among others.

In the words of the minister, “it is our expectation that the World Toilet Summit will provide a veritable platform for the mobilization of the private sector and other critical stakeholders in addressing the challenge of open defecation in the country.

“We also acknowledge the role of the private sector in boosting the sanitation value chain and creating a circular economy across the value chain which can boost the country’s economic indices and have positive impacts across other sectors.

“The 2022 World Toilet Summit is expected to bring together government actors, private sector players, development partners, NGOs and other sector stakeholders to highlight the dangers of open defecation and bring it to greater public focus.”