Unicef reports says Ekiti State accounts for over 60% of open defecation in Nigeria

EKITI State has been voted as the worst state in the federation when it comes to defiling the environment and engaging in open defecation by the United Nations Children Fund (Unicef) and the European Union (EU).

 

In a damning report, Unicef said over 2.5bn people in the world lacked access to improved sanitation and that of the figure, 1bn people are engaged in open defecation. It also revealed that 1.8m Ekiti residents out of a total population of 2.7m are engaged in open defecation, contributing about 60.8% to the aggregate of this menace nationally.

 

At a recent two day networking and alliance building workshop organized by the EU and Unicef on Water Sanitation and Hygiene and Open Defecation held at Ijero Ekiti in Ijero Local Government Area of Ekiti State, the scale of the problem was described as frightening. In one of the leading papers presented, Lanre Ayeni, of the Ekiti State Rural Water Sanitation Agency said 748m people lacked access to hygienic water supply.

Ms Ayeni said “When you take a water that has been contaminated by faeces, the person will have 10m viruses, 1m bacteria and 100,000 parasite eggs in her body system. Advocacy for open defecation free in Ekiti and good water sanitation is yielding results as enforcement in the past has failed but what we now use is persuasion and people are gradually changing their perception about this concept.”

Mohsena Islam, a wash specialist from Unicef led a delegation on a field trip with Ekiti Media Wash Group to Asasa and Temidire Olojofi farm settlements in Aramoko Ekiti, to assess compliance with the campaign against open defecation .He revealed that several achievements had been recorded in Ekiti, using Gbonyin and Ekiti West as pilot councils.

 

“In Ekiti, an estimated number of 180,000 people are gaining access to good source of water through provision of hand pump boreholes. In the same way, 29,582 people in Ekiti have gained access to safe water through rehabilitation of 65 hand pumps in Gbonyin and 965 pupils from four schools now have access to child and gender friendly water supply
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“We have also brought improvement to 250 towns and communities by providing 10 toilets per public. We have also provided technical supports in 313 communities, for them to know various ways to build and take ownership of low cost latrines and how to repair them in case of damage," Mr Islam added.