NGO wants access to water, toilets priority

The Community Excellence and Development Initiative, CEDI, has appealed to the Federal Government to make access to safe water and toilets a priority for all communities.

The non-governmental organization (NGO) committed to community health and empowerment programmes explained that access to safe water and toilets constituted parts of the rights of individuals.

The Executive Director CEDI, Mr. Israel Onuvae, noted that Nigerians were denied the right because the mass of the victims had no voice.

CEDI made the appeal at its advocacy and community engagement campaign at Dagba community in Area 1 of the Abuja Municipal as well as at the Kuchingoro community.

The World Health Organization, (WHO), attributes poor sanitation and unsafe water as a major cause of nearly 20% of workplace deaths globally with accumulated cost in the region of $260 billion in lost global productivity annually.

In July 2010, United Nation adopted a resolution of human right to water and sanitation and this was endorsed by the Nigerian government in July 2011.

The sanitation target of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) aims to achieve universal sanitation coverage by 2030.

According to a survey conducted by UNICEF, Nigeria has the second highest prevalence of open defecation in the world.

Onuvae called on the Federal Ministry of Health to address the abject lack of access to safe water and toilets as the major causal agent of viral and infectious diseases ravaging communities across Nigeria.

“Every year, millions of people die from diseases caused by inadequate water supply, sanitation, and hygiene,” he lamented.