Nigeria: Country ‘Needs N14 Billion to Provide Toilets for Citizens’

Nigeria requires more than 120 million dollars (about N14 billion) to provide 62 million citizens access to basics anitation and hygiene by 2015.

The statistics were provided by the UNICEF”D” Field Office in Bauchi in response to anational survey on sanitation and hygieneundertaken by the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN). The target is in line with the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on sanitation.

According to the UN agency, the country alsoneeds to build more than eight million toiletsbefore 2015 to achieve sustainable sanitation and hygiene.

Read More - This Day

Nigeria: Imo Sanitation Agency Carts Away 724 Metric Tons of Refuse

Imo State Bureau for Sanitation and Transport has between October 2007 and March 2008, carted away an estimated 724 metric tons of refuse, even as the body has declared its intention to increase the tempo on daily basis.

The Special Adviser (SA) to the Governor on Sanitationand transport, Chief Willie Amadi, who stated this during a ministerial briefing in Owerri, also said that this singular duty has been pursued vigorously with a view to meeting the accepted environmental standard in the country.

Read More

Nigeria: Waging War Against Open Defecation

Daily Trust (Abuja), Posted to the web 25 April 2008, Abdul Hassan

As health experts explore how to make the Nigerian society healthy, one worrisome impediment is the common act of open defecation.

The practice, hitherto restricted to the rural areas, is now a common sight in the urban centres. In Abuja, the nation’s capital for instance, it is not unusual to see adults stooping by the roadside and passing excreta, oblivious of motorists and passersby. (…)

Read all:   AllAfrica.com    and Daily Trust

Nigeria: Minister Faults Area Council Chairmen On Sanitation

Minister of state for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. James Akpanudoedehe, yesterday told the six local government chairmen in the FCT that he was not satisfied with their performance in the area of sanitation just as he enjoined them to make relative improvement to ensure that Abuja maintains its standard as a world class city.   (…)

Read more

Nigeria: Declare state of emergency on sanitation, body tells FG

Tuesday, Apr 8, 2008

The federal government has been called upon to declare a state of emergency on environmental sanitation in the country. This is in view of the deteriorating sanitary standards of the country’s urban and rural areas and the glaring failure of curative health services. This is one of the recommendations contained in the communiqué issued at the end of the 41st Annual National Conference/Scientific Workshop of the Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria (EHOAN) at Yenagoa, Bayelsa State recently.  (…)

Read more

Nigeria: Meet Target On Latrines, Unicef Urges Kebbi Govt

United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) has challenged the Kebbi State government to meet its target of constructing household latrines and compartments in schools across the state.

The government has set a target to construct 31,480 household latrines, 270 compartments in 45 schools, 189 compartments in 63 health centres and 394 compartments in public places.

Read More - allAfrica

Nigeria - Towards campaign on schools sanitation

Recently the Lagos State Government in collaboration with (UNIECF) organised a “Hand Washing Campaign” to kick-start the International Year of Sanitation. It was aimed at reducing the incidence of disease as well as improving hygiene behaviours among its citizens particularly among pupils and students.

…

The purpose of this project is to develop and institute state standards for sanitation facilities and hygiene promotion in the primary schools, with links to the surrounding communities. These are expected to lay the groundwork for programmatic approaches that can be applied more extensively.

Read More - The Tide Online

Nigeria: FG Backs Construction of 1m Latrines

The Federal Government has expressed willingness to support the construction of one million latrines throughout the country.

In his welcome address at the celebration of the 2008 World Water Day, the Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Sayyadi Abba Ruma, said the ministry will collaborate with other relevant agencies in the sanitation sub-sector to attain the International Year of Sanitation targets which include hand washing campaign as well as building one million latrines.

Read more: Misbahu Bashir, Daily Trust / allAfrica.com, 20 Mar 2008

The International Year of Sanitation 2008: from global movement to local action

The proclamation of 2008 as International Year of Sanitation (IYS) has handed the sanitation sector a great advocacy tool. However, big advocacy drives can also disrupt daily life on the ground, where projects need to be implemented and people connected to basic services. Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) Coordinators from Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan and Burkina Faso were asked about their thoughts regarding the IYS, and its impact on the ground.

Read more: Source Bulletin, Feb 2008

Nigeria - Washing hands reduces infectious diseases

HAVE YOU WASHED YOUR hands?” the headmaster of a primary school in a village in northern Nigeria asked 160 children standing in line one morning before starting class.

“Yes master!” answered the youthful, enthusiastic crowd.
his daily ritual has become a game, said Sani Marafa, the headmaster at the school in Lokoto, a community of some 50 mud and brick houses 20 kilometres from Niger State’s capital, Minna.

“The children weren’t used to washing their hands in the morning,” he explained. “They didn’t know the importance and benefit of using latrines.”

He produced many drawings he uses to explain basic hygiene to students and little games he has devised.

But it is not just games and drawings that have improved the hygiene of Lokoto. Water came to the village in 2003 when the Niger state government, with support from the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), sank two wells in the village.

Read More - IRIN, 18 Feb 2008