The 2021 Water Sanitation and Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping (WASHNORM) report has revealed that about 5,020,920 residents, representing 53.7 per cent of the total population of Oyo State, practice open defecation, while about 3,621,520, representing 43 per cent use unimproved toilet facilities.
The report also disclosed that only 8.4 per cent of households have access to basic hand washing services.
WASH specialist at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Mr Monday Johnson, at a two-day media dialogue on Open Defecation Free (ODF), South West States of Nigeria, in Oyo State on Thursday, averred that the state has the highest number of people still practicing Open Defecation in South-West, Nigeria.
Sadly, Johnson said this has led to disease outbreaks like cholera and hundreds of under-five deaths; reduced school attendance; stunting; wasting; malnutrition; poor productivity and loss of GDP.
In the same vein, the director of sanitation, Oyo Sate Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA), Obafemi Titilayo, has attributed the worrisome situation of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in the State to poor maintenance culture; inadequate facilities and equipment; inadequate skilled personnel and poorly motivated Local Government Area (LGA) WASH departments/units staff and unserviceable/inadequate basic WASH facilities and equipment such as drilling rigs, sewage disposal trucks and vehicles for monitoring and supervision.
Other factors are the dearth of basic office equipment; poorly sensitised WASH stakeholders, including LG officials, LGA legislative council members, heads of communities, on the new National Policy on Water Supply and Sanitation and non- availability of WASH account in almost all the LGAs and poor attention by some council authority on WASH programmes, Titlayo averred.
To change the narrative in the state, however, the director disclosed that the state government, with support from UNICEF, developed and launched the roadmap of ending Open Defecation in Oyo State by 2028.
The sum of N80million was pooled by the state government and UNICEF for implementation of Sanitation Revolving Fund (SRF) at a single digit interest rate of nine per cent to households for sanitation facilities construction, Titilayo averred, adding that, this is to create increasing access to sanitation and hygiene.
“So far, 854 communities (Egbeda LGA-480 and Ona Ara LGA-378) have been triggered and being monitored for ODF in 14 wards (eight in Egbeda and six in Ona Ara) of the two LGAs. The two LGAs have 22 wards with about 1,285 communities. 404 communities are ODF-claiming and ready for certification (Egbeda 254 and Ona Ara 150); 12 Toilet Business Owners and 36 masons have been trained and actively constructing household toilets across the triggered wards of the two LGAs which has seen 473 toilets constructed.
“A six compartment model toilet (three for males and three for females) was built in a public primary school in Egbeda LGA by the collaborative efforts of the state and UNICEF, among others,” she acclaimed.
UNICEF WASH specialist, Lagos State, Dr. Bisi Orebiyi, while applauding Oyo State government in its effort to eradicating Open Defecation by 2028, however, disclosed that N173,191,198,400 was needed to finance the sanitation sector from 2022 to 2028.
“This amount comprises N48,665,040,000 contributions from the communities for household latrine construction and hand washing facility provision in the 33 LGAs. The sum of N103,915,000,000 is required in the construction of institutional latrines and hand washing facilities in public and private schools, public and private health facilities, markets, and motor parks.
“Also, an estimated sum of N15,744,654,400 is required for support services in the areas of advocacy, campaigns, community mobilization, capacity building of state and LGAs officials/communities and monitoring and evaluation,” he disclosed.
While about 70 per cent of the funds must come from government, Orebiyi called on the government to give more attention to WASH programme at all levels. “Government should release funds and procure all necessary WASH equipment and facilities and embark on public awareness campaign through the media,” he advised.
In his response, the Commissioner for Oyo State Information and Orientation, Prince Dotun Oyelade, assured that the state government is working assiduously to curb the trend of Open Defecation in the state, while pointing out that many cautionary and enlightenment billboards had been mounted at strategic places across the state to raise the level of awareness.