The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, says the federal government will collaborate with other stakeholders to improve access to toilets and WASH facilities in schools.

“The new initiative ‘School WASH’ will be targeted first to federal government Institutions, Colleges of Education universities, and polytechnics starting from 2023,” said Mr Adamu. “We are ready and hope that the Federal Ministry of Education is ready. We will be talking to SUBEB, TETFund and will also be going down to state and local governments to see that they are also carried along.”

He added that a draft MoU had been sent to the education ministry. 

“We also have a budget line starting from 2023. We hope the ministry will keep pace with our enthusiasm to ensure we attack these indices,” he said. “The 2022 World Toilet Summit scheduled to hold in Nigeria is a unique global platform in which stakeholders, NGOs, development partners and high-level decision makers would come together to better strategise and address in-country sanitation challenges.”

The minister also mentioned that the summit “will also proffer solutions that will help to resolve the issues around open defecation.”

According to Mr Adamu, there will be a world press conference to bring Nigerians up to speed as preparations are on to host the summit from November 18 to 19.

“This is a global event which will provide an excellent opportunity to bring greater visibility to the issue of ending open defecation in Nigeria,” added Mr Adamu. “It is expected to enhance Nigeria’s capability to be better equipped towards meeting the target of ending open defecation by 2025.”

(NAN)