FG, Clean Nigeria Secretariat agree on more collaboration to end open defecation 

By YANGE IKYAA

The federal government has called for more collaborative efforts among ministries and agencies to improve Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, WASH, services in the country and to end open defecation by 2025.

Similarly, the “Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet” campaign secretariat, under the federal ministry of water resources, has stepped up its campaign against open defecation, promoting the use of toilets in homes and public places.

This is in line with Executive Order No 9, which was promulgated by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.

The campaign secretariat is embarking on the use of its five thematic arears that include policy and coordination, advocacy and communication, programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation and fund mobilization to carry out its activities at the national and sub-national levels.

There will also be a series of engagements and collaborations with development partners, NGOs, civil society groups, philanthropists and WASH ambassadors.

The minister of water resources, Suleiman Adamu, and his counterpart in the federal ministry of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, had earlier in the week signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the two ministries. The MoU, among others things, outlined the specific responsibilities and roles of the two ministries towards ending open defecation in the country, as well as ensuring improvement of WASH services in federal government health facilities.

The minister of water resources, Suleiman Adamu, in his speech said there was an urgent need to collectively change the ugly narrative of the growing mortality rate arising from Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) crisis.

Adamu expressed optimism that the initiative for collaborative engagement between the ministries, when sustained, would improve access to WASH services in the country.

He also stated that the issues of Water Sanitation and Hygiene are cross-cutting, with impact on the different sectors, majorly health and the economy.

The minister further explained that the Health-WASH Programme is designed to identify the WASH needs and bridge the WASH service gap across Nigeria’s healthcare facilities, with focus on the primary healthcare facilities.

“Through this initiative, the federal government is leading by example in the provision of adequate WASH services to its own managed health facilities” the maintained.

Dr. Osagie Ehanire, who is Nigeria’s minister of health, on his part, said that 60% of diseases emanate from poor quality of Water Sanitation and Hygiene, and that the WASH programme is a major game changer in the health sector.

The health minister assured that access to potable water would drastically reduce the unfortunate increasing mortality rate figures arising from poor hygiene services.

According to Ehanire, the collaboration was apt, as the challenges facing the health sector are interrelated with issues of WASH services. He therefore called for more collaborations to improve the sector and to end open defecation by the year 2025.

Present at the ceremony were the permanent secretaries of the federal ministry of water resources, Mrs. Esther Didi Walson-Jack; the permanent secretary of the federal ministry of health, Alhaji Mahmuda Mamman; the director of people and public relations in the federal ministry of water resources, Mrs. Kenechukwu Offie; the director of water quality control and sanitation, Mrs Elizabeth Ugo; as well as the directors of legal services in the two ministries, and the National Coordinator of Clean Nigeria Campaign Secretariat, Mrs. C.N Opara.