Open defecation is a lifestyle in Nigeria – UNICEF Report

Most Nigerian homes, especially in the rural areas, are not designed to have toilets. We believe that defecation should be done in the bush, so we go literally to answer the call of nature.
Some areas in Ibadan for example have seen open defecation as a normal thing to do. Even in day time, you see grown up women and women defecation in the open right beside their houses.
This was made known in a report issued yesterday by Ijeoma Onuoha-Ogwe, UNICEF ‘A Field Office’ Communication Officer (Advocacy, Media and External Relations) on behalf of Sanjay Wijesekera, head of UNICEF’s global water, sanitation and hygiene programmes, to coincide with World Toilet Day.
Recently, The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, reported that over 50million Nigerians do not have access to toilets, therefore many of them do the business in the open. The report also revealed that Nigeria ranks among the five countries in the world with the greatest rates of open defecation.
The report titled, Improving Nutrition Outcomes with Better Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, pointed out the emerging evidence of links between inadequate sanitation and malnutrition among children.
Wijesekera was quoted as saying that “Nigeria loses over 150,000 children to diarrhea annually. After pneumonia, it is the biggest killer of Nigeria’s under-fives; 88 per cent of diarrhoea cases in Nigeria are attributed to unsafe water and sanitation. Where rates of toilet use are low, rates of diarrhoea tend to be high.
“Intestinal parasites such as roundworm, whipworm and hookworm are transmitted through contaminated soil in areas where open defecation is practiced. Hookworm is a major cause of anaemia in pregnant women, leading to malnourished, underweight babies.
“We need to bring concrete and innovative solutions to the problem of where people go to the toilet, otherwise we are failing millions of our poorest and most vulnerable children.”