Firm tells FG to strengthen laws on menace
From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The federal government has been encouraged to strengthen exist laws and regulations to address open defecation in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The appeal was made by the Executive Director, HipCity Innovation Centre, Bassey Bassey, who spoke during the first Abuja urban sanitation conference to mark this year’s World Toilet Day celebrated every November 21.
The event was organised by HipCity Innovation Centre in collaboration with the FCT-Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Directorate (FCT-RUWASSA).
Bassey lamented the prevalence of open defecation in the FCT, lamenting that no single area councils in the FCT was open defecation free (ODF).
He commended the Federal Government on the redesigned campaign to end open defecation, saying the campaign shows political will by the government to end open defecation in Nigeria.
He said: “The revised Implementation Strategy document by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation is a document of government. First, it shows political will by the government to end open defecation in Nigeria.
“What is this conference contributing to that? So we’re domesticating that national document, this is what it is, bringing it down, localizing it to the local context, and the local context here being the FCT.
“It is really sad that the Federal Capital Territory, capital of Nigeria, does not have even a single area council that is open defecation free.
“So one of the key things that we’re doing here is to bring stakeholders into the room to see how do we forge a pathway to ensure that the six area councils of Abuja or the FCT is open defecation free by the year 2030. So the Abuja Sanitation Conference is the first of its kind and it will not stop until we ensure that Abuja or the FCT becomes open defecation free.
“One of the key messages or the panel would be on sanitation jobs, because we need young people to see the opportunities that are within the challenges facing us, which is open defecation. So today people are doing recycling, biogas, we have an energy crisis, and yet everyday people eat, and as people eat they will defecate.
“So why don’t we creatively manage those human feces in such a way that we’re now channeling it into productive use, generating biogas, using it for other recyclable material.
“In countries like India, China, they recycle the gray water in such a way that it is being plowed back into the system and there is no waste to it, and that’s also the concept of circular economy, where nothing is waste.”
He added: “One key initiative that Hipcity has launched is called the Swag Toilet. So the Swag Toilet initiative is a project of Hipcity that is targeted at building the capacity of existing toilet business owners, but also introducing young persons to sanitation jobs, such that when they get into sanitation jobs within communities, they become ambassadors within their communities to now sensitize and educate other people within those communities to say, we need to use the toilet.
“These are the pathways out of it, without necessarily paying people to drive that message, because people have taken ownership of the entire process.
“So, the government would not be able to do anything, and that is where the place of private sector partnership comes in.
“Government must make enabling laws to allow the private sector and other individuals to come in to provide these services and infrastructure where they are not there.
“Open defecation is a crisis that is going on. One of the key things is awareness, awareness, awareness. If people know, they become sensitised. So that is one thing.
“Two, we are also working with the government to look at the policies governing sanitation in the FCT. One of the key things we have shared with government is to say that we need to begin to even make arrests of people who are defacing the environment. And there are creative ways we have to do that.
“We can launch an environmental co-op where we employ our young persons within communities to ensure that they make arrests of people who are defecating in the open. And this is one area that the private sector can come in.
“Another thing is that we can also creatively provide resources that people who are within underserved communities and do not have money to pay to use the toilet, that private sector can begin to subsidize such initiatives so that money cost is not a hindrance for people not going to use toilets.”
The Overseeing Director of FCT-RUWASSA, Luke Ulom said the FCT administration had passed a law to drive the sanitation campaign in the FCT.
He said the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, had provide sanitation facilities by way of not only just sanitising or maybe making various committees at various levels, but we have provided tools.
He said: “We have provided other materials that will bring the community to fall with the excess of hygiene and treatment issues of changing the attitude towards putting some of these wastes in order to clean. So, in that respect, I can tell you that the directorate has been doing so much.”
In addition, National Coordinator, Clean Nigeria Campaign, Chizoma Opara said the redesigned campaign would assist the country to eliminate open defecation by 2030.
She said: “We’re working towards ending ODF, eliminating ODF by the year 2030, and working in collaboration, in partnership, in strengthened coordination to see that we actually achieve the goal of an ODF-free Nigeria.
“As of today, though, we have 135 local governments open to defecation-free. So, with the new strategic plan that was launched, it’s going to be more involving.
“We’re going to see multi-sectoral partnerships, inter-ministerial partnerships, and of course, if we triple down to the states, local governments, because it is a grassroots thing, and we must also take cognizance of that.”