“Four cities namely, Abuja, Uyo, Bauchi and Abakiliki, can be said to be clean in year 2021. Performance indicators from our studies show that over 172.7 million Nigerians in 2021 are living in unclean environment, compared to 170 million in 2020.
By Samuel Oyejola, Abuja
The practice of open defecation has increased in 2021 as Nigeria remains the number one country in the world leading in open defecation since 2018, a new report has said.
According to the State of Nigeria Environment Report 2021 presented by Clean Up Nigeria National Technical Working Group, recently in Abuja during a press briefing, open defecation has increased sanitation related disease from twenty-five percent to thirty two percent in the country.
The report revealed that Borno, Osun and Kogi states emerged as the top three dirtiest states in the country with cleanliness performance index ratings of 12 per cent, 13 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.
The report which outlined the cleanliness performance index ratings of all states and major towns of the federation indicated that Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi and Bauchi are the top three cleanest states in Nigeria, with cleanliness performance index ratings of 64, 55 and 44 per cent respectively.
The National Coordinator/Secretary, Clean-Up Nigeria National Technical Working Group, Ene-Baba Owoh, while presenting the report said, “In 2021 our studies further showed that less than four states who scored above 40 pwer cent can be considered to be clean, compared to 2020 when there were three states (Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi and Bauchi).
“Four cities namely, Abuja, Uyo, Bauchi and Abakiliki, can be said to be clean in year 2021. Performance indicators from our studies show that over 172.7 million Nigerians in 2021 are living in unclean environment, compared to 170 million in 2020.
”Speaking on the methodology adopted in putting up the report, Owoh said team worked with the combined physical verification of states/towns. He explained further that satellite imagery data of all states and towns captured in the study were applied in all the performance indicators on a monthly basis.
He said the cleanliness of streets/road channels, vegetation/drainage control and waste management services of all 36 states and major towns were examined during the one year study period.
Others include public opinion poll, knowledge, attitude and practice of hygiene and sanitation of the people in all the states of the federation. While revealing that no fewer than 172.7 million Nigerians are living in unclean environment, the report recommended that government at all level should take seriously the aspect of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) of hygiene and sanitation to improve living conditions in order to increase the average life expectancy in Nigeria from 45 years to 55 years.
It further recommended that “funding allocated for sanitation and waste management should be stepped up by at least 100% by States/Local Government Councils while corporate organizations should support/ donate sanitation and waste management facilities to States/Local Councils.
The report recommended that the informal sector should engage in waste recycling while reuse industry should be encouraged by Corporate Organizations and government at all levels as a means of creating employment, through waste to wealth initiatives. Clean-Up Nigeria, is an international non-governmental organisation with consultative status with the United Nations since 1994.