A public health and environmental expert, Dr Nicholas Igwe, has called for increased awareness on the dangers of open defecation.
Igwe, a member of the National Task Group on Sanitation of the Ministry of Water Resources, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.
According to him, Nigerians need to understand what open defecation is and how it impacts negatively on their health.
“COVID-19 opened our eyes in terms of the dangers of hygiene-related diseases and how good hygiene can help in solving lots of health diseases.
“We need to do more advocacy for people to understand the negative impacts of these practices.
“After the COVID-19 period, more people started getting aware of the impacts of poor sanitation.
“Generally, people are aware that it is not nice to defecate in the open but there are other challenges that have made the practice to continue.
“These challenges can make us create better advocacy and awareness to bridge the gap of open defecation in the country,” he said.
Igwe further noted that the negative impacts of open defecation were not only on the environment or health but also on the economy.
“There are negative economic impacts of open defecation, aside those relating to the environment and health.
“Unsafe sanitary practices will eventually lead to ill-health, which can further make people to be unproductive, thereby leading to negative economic impacts.
“The awareness is ongoing to get the state governments to work with the federal government in the fight against open defecation.
“We have to create individual state sanitation groups in order to put an end to open defecation in each state.
“We also need more media advocacy to promote the open defecation-free campaign in the country,” the expert said.
