TheCable

UNICEF is set to support the federal government in its bid to totally eradicate open defecation by the year 2025, an official said on Sunday in Abuja.

Mr Bisi Agberemi, UNICEF Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) specialist, told NAN that the organisation would develop a roadmap towards achieving this goal.

There are currently 34 million Nigerians said to be defecating in public, mainly owing to poor water resources and bad sanitation habits.

The 2025 target and the decision to develop a road map were agreed at the 2013 National Council on Water held in Kaduna.

Agberemi said UNICEF would involve foreign consultants in the development of the roadmap to facilitate the process of its creation.

“For Nigeria to totally end open defecation in 2025, which is the target, the country must have a roadmap to achieve that.

“UNICEF is ready to support the Nigerian government with the creation of the roadmap.

“We will bring in international consultants who are specialists in this area to help develop this roadmap,” he said.

Agberemi said the inclusion of consultants was to create an avenue to hold someone accountable for any lapse in the open defecation eradication road map creation.

“The consultants had already started working, but they are being delayed presently by a month, due to the outbreak of the deadly Ebola disease,” he said.

The UNICEF WASH specialist said the roadmap would encompass all sectors of life.

“Areas to be captured in the roadmap, to ensure the target is achieved, range from advocacy to training, to construction and the involvement of every Nigerian citizen in the fight against open defection.

“By the end of 2014, all things being equal, the document will be ready and implementation should start in January 2015. That is our plan,” he said.

PHOTO: spacesforchange.blogspot.com